Planet Net
by Quatre Winner
Summary: A Lyoko Warrior falls into the digital sea. Now, stuck on an entirely different network, he must make a life for himself as a digital entity. But just because he's in Japan's Internet doesn't mean XANA will sit idly by. Things're going to get interesting.
1. Chapter 1

Well, here's another fic from the depths of my head. Don't know what spawned this, since I wrote it and finished it a while ago, but it's been sitting in my computer for ages. Finally decided to post it, though!

For EXE, this fic takes place in the game 'verse with one glaring exception. Internet City is present in this fic because it snuck in and I rather liked having a setting I could visualize properly. Otherwise, there's no mention of crossfusion or any other anime-only items (unless another one snuck in that I don't know about). It's set after the end of Battle Network 6; pretend the Hikaris moved back to Akihara after the end of the game.

I'm not entirely sure about the usage of Japanese honorifics; I heard them in my head as I was writing but how they came out is a bit awkward-sounding. The rule I settled on was that the EXE characters used them pretty much all the time but Lyoko characters would only use them when actually talking to EXE characters.

For Lyoko, this fic starts during Season 2 and goes way AU from there.

Also, I realize I bounce back and forth between using hit points and life points. This was intentional; the Lyoko characters will use life points because that's what they've always used. Likewise, EXE characters will use hit points because that's what they use. If I screw up and have the characters using the wrong term, feel free to let me know!

Can't think of any other notes for right now, so on with the fic!

* * *

Code Lyoko and Rockman exe belong to their respective owners. I do not seek any monetary compensation from this work; I'm just doing this for fun and for the reviews.

* * *

At the time, it had been a standard day.

Lasers scattered on the dusty tan ground, red beams that impacted without a mark on the false virtual landscapes. The air was filled with grunts, cries, and catcalls, three figures darting amongst nonhuman creatures while a fourth figure huddled behind some rocks. The monsters were the source of the lasers, aiming at the two boys and single girl that evaded most of their attacks with ease. The few shots that got through their defense were brushed off as if they didn't hurt. The fourth figure, another girl, was rarely the target of the attacks, though she just as rarely made herself a target.

The boy in purple, purple-streaked blonde hair sticking straight up on his head and tail flicking agitatedly behind him, dodged another laser with a laugh. "It seems like these guys all go to the same shooting range!" As if to mock them he whirled around, an arrow streaking from the back of his cat paw and hitting one of the monsters with deadly accuracy. It exploded into pieces and vanished.

"Don't get so cocky, Odd," the other boy, this one in brown with a yellow headband, cautioned. He deflected a few bolts with his katana to punctuate his words and darted close to a square-shaped monster. His blade made no mark on the monster and he was forced to retreat once more.

"What? So they can't aim. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy." Odd grinned and flexed his claws, taking advantage of a nearby rock face to gain a height advantage over a crab-shaped monster. He shot a few arrows at the odd eye shape on top of its shell, missing with all but one. The one hit the eye dead center, causing the monster to stagger and explode like the other.

The girl in a kimono top and leggings snorted, plucking a fan from her yellow bow and throwing it at the block monster that had repelled the brown-clothed boy's attack. It turned into a glowing chakram, whirling through the monster and returning to the girl's waiting hand. "You two are just as bad as ever. Ulrich, stop joking around and get rid of some of these monsters! We have to get Aelita to the tower before XANA tries something stupid."

The girl behind the rocks nodded, dust covering her pink and white outfit and scattering in her pink hair. "Yes, Yumi. If we don't hurry then XANA's attack will wipe out the school."

Ulrich charged forward once more, this time hitting his target directly in their eye-shaped weak point. Another crab monster shattered into pieces. "Aelita, now! Go on!"

It had been just another day in the virtual world of Lyoko. Strange as it would seem to an outside observer, events were playing out in a pattern that had been repeated many times before. This time had been expected to be no different.

It was a shock, then, when Ulrich's charge was towards a monster that was two close to the edge of the desert terrain. When it exploded, the shockwave threw him too far in the wrong direction. Flailing hands missed the edge by fractions of an inch. It was over before anyone could even cry out. Ulrich vanished into the shimmering surface stretching beneath the whole of Lyoko, the Digital Sea.

As all three left on Lyoko knew, the Digital Sea was the boundary of Lyoko. It marked where the virtual world ended and the rest of the online network began. A fall into it was the equivalent of death, as the victim would be integrated into the rest of the network. A human who fell into the Sea could never be retrieved. They could never return to the real world.

What Yumi, Odd, and Aelita didn't know, however, was that such a fall was not the end. They would grieve, search fruitlessly, and move on, recruiting another to fill a hole left in their ranks. They couldn't know what would await Ulrich at the end of his plunge.

* * *

The first thing Ulrich was aware of was waves lapping at his feet. There was no wet sensation to accompany this, however, something it took him a moment to realize was odd. He stayed where he was for a while longer, wondering how he'd gotten to this odd place, before he finally ventured to open his eyes.

A round face greeted him, a globe within a globe of shimmering water, eyes on the inner globe taking on an odd watery quality. He blinked up at it, wondering just what the heck his friend Jeremie had gotten him into this time, when the odd creature tilted its head and spoke in a soft tone.

"Uh, sorry, but I don't speak Japanese," Ulrich replied, recognizing Yumi's native language immediately. He pushed himself up, gazing out at the shimmering water before him, and realized that he was still in his Lyoko outfit. The odd grid he was lying on wasn't anything like Lyoko, however, which had him stumped until he finally remembered what, exactly, had happened.

"Oh, yeah," he said quietly, recognizing the Digital Sea. "I must have washed up out of it. Where am I?"

The creature pulled at him with tiny hands, barely as tall as he was while he was sitting down, and he turned his attention to it. It looked almost like a child, if a child was dressed in a white shirt with blue limbs and a water-filled globe for a head. There was an odd emblem on its chest, a circle with a multicolored wavy line. It spoke again, its voice still soft and gentle, though Ulrich could definitely tell that it was asking a question.

"Sorry," he said again, shrugging helplessly. "Still don't understand. I must be somewhere on Japan's network, though."

The creature tugged at him once more, its face scrunching up in impatience, until Ulrich clambered to his feet, hand going to rest automatically on the saber at his hip. "What do you still want?" he asked exasperatedly, though at the same time he was relieved. Since he was still a digital entity he figured he was on the Internet. If he was in Japan, he thought he knew what the friendly creature was. "You're a Navi, right?" It was better than one of XANA's monsters or a Virus, he thought with relief. He knew what Navis were, artificial intelligences that were almost always paired with a human Operator, he'd just never expected to meet one quite like this. His school's network hadn't been upgraded to the point of needing Navis yet.

The creature grinned, nodding enthusiastically. "Navi," it repeated in its soft, musical voice. "Naaaavi."

Ulrich smiled at it. "Well, we're getting somewhere. My name's Ulrich," he told it. "Ulrich. What's yours?"

"Ulrich?" the Navi repeated thoughtfully. "Uuuulrich."

"Uh-huh. And you?" Ulrich pointed at the Navi pointedly. It looked at him for a moment before grinning.

"Aquaman," it said slowly, enunciating carefully. It tugged at his wrist, dragging him forward a few inches, at the same time saying something incomprehensible.

"Well, Aquaman," Ulrich mused, looking back at the Digital Sea for a brief moment and pondering his options. He was well aware of what had happened, as well as what was likely to not happen. There was no point in hanging around at the edge of the Sea hoping pointlessly. "Take me to your leader."

Aquaman didn't take Ulrich to its leader. Rather, it dragged him through several different areas that he couldn't make sense of, areas that were as diverse as the other Navis he encountered. Some areas were plain with grids for floors, while some were near-mirrors of areas in real life. Connecting them were nondescript corridors with no discernible entrances or exits to the various areas, although Aquaman seemed to be able to navigate with ease.

Finally they got through to one area that looked like a giant city, buildings stacked on top of buildings in layers and layers of civilization. Ulrich almost thought he was back in the real world, except instead of people wandering around there were countless numbers of Navis.

"Um, where are we going?" he asked Aquaman as the Navi continued to drag him. It said something in its melodic voice, giggling at the end, but it didn't budge one inch from its course.

Ulrich ignored the odd stares from the Navis around him, focusing instead on the road ahead of them. He was surprised, then, when a gold Navi stepped into their path, speaking inquisitively to Aquaman. The childlike Navi grinned and drew close to Ulrich, sighing something happily.

The gold Navi looked at Ulrich next, saying something to him. He had a golden chestplate, gloves, helmet, and boots, while the rest of him was covered in a black bodysuit. His symbol was three triangles stacked in a pyramid in a black and gold background.

"Sorry," Ulrich sighed. "Still don't understand."

"Oh, you're a French Navi?" the gold Navi said, startled. "Oh my, it's so unusual for a Navi to wander out of their country without a translation program installed."

"It was an unplanned detour," Ulrich explained, freeing his hand from Aquaman. "I've guessed that I'm in Japan, but where am I, exactly?"

"I'm Glyde," the gold Navi introduced. "You're in Densan City's Internet City, the pride and joy of our public network. This place mirrors a real-life shopping center, though on a much grander scale. It will be very hard for you to get around without a translation program, though. If you'll give me a moment I'll ask my Operator if we can be generous and offer our assistance."

Aquaman looked up at them inquisitively, a hand near its mouth. It asked Ulrich something, but the brunette just shook his head.

"Yaito-sama says that she doesn't have time for deadbeat Navis," Glyde said apologetically. "However, she says that I can escort you to a friend of ours. Perhaps he can offer his assistance."

"Thanks, that'd be a help." Not that Ulrich knew how translation programs would work on a human that had been virtualized into the network. "I'm Ulrich, by the way."

"And what is your Operator's name?" Glyde asked curiously as he started in a seemingly random direction.

That was a pickle. Ulrich thought furiously, trying to think up a plausible explanation, only to have Aquaman pounce him and settle onto his shoulders. "It's, ah, complicated. You see, I don't have an operator." Better to start with the truth, he decided. It wasn't like he could fake having an operator anyway.

"You're an independent Navi?" Glyde looked intrigued. "That could be interesting. We'll see what Netto-kun can do for you, but without an operator or a PET there might not be much."

They walked in silence the rest of the way, Ulrich observing everything and wondering how he was going to pull this off. He thought back to his friends and wondered if they'd try something stupid to try and get him back, though he knew it was futile. Only one of them had ever fallen into the Digital Sea before and it was only thanks to quick action and a lucky program that Yumi had been retrieved. If he hadn't been gotten back by now, Ulrich thought despairingly, his friends never would be able to get him.

It was best to make what he could of his situation. At least he could try to pass himself off as a Navi and he wasn't defenseless. He'd read about Navis before and about the viruses that permeated the Internet. If he was careful and stayed within areas that had pretty powerful firewalls, he would be okay.

He was purposely not thinking very far beyond that. He didn't want to think of the lonely years ahead of him, trapped in the virtual world and cut off from his friends. He didn't want to think about the grief his parents would feel when they learned that he wouldn't ever be coming home.

"According to Yaito-sama, Rockman is through here," Glyde said, coming to a stop near what Ulrich guessed was a shop. "He and his operator, Netto-kun, will be able to assist you."

At least Ulrich recognized the honorifics Glyde was using. He'd gotten an earful from Yumi when he'd called her "Yumi-chan" once, teasingly. He'd been very, very sure to never make that mistake again.

"They won't be able to understand me, though," Ulrich protested, realizing that Glyde was going to leave him.

"Rockman has a translation program installed, don't worry. He'll be able to speak to you. I must return to my errand, however. It was very nice to meet you, Ulrich, and I hope you manage to return to your network soon." He bowed, then said something kindly to Aquaman. The childlike Navi pouted but clambered down from Ulrich's shoulders, tugging one last time on his hand. It grinned and departed with Glyde.

Left alone in a sea of strangers Ulrich could only wonder just what the heck he had gotten himself into. With nothing better to do he shrugged and entered the shop, spotting a blue Navi immediately. He was alone aside from a green creature that the former human recognized as a Mr. Program, personified programs on the internet tasked with running specific programs. This one, he mused, must be a shopkeeper Program.

"Excuse me," Ulrich said to the blue Navi. His bodysuit was a deep blue with light blue stripes running down the side, his helmet, gloves, and boots a much lighter blue color. When he turned around Ulrich could see his emblem, a red circle split into halves on a black background. "Are you Rockman? I was just with a friend of yours, Glyde, and he said you could help me."

"French?" the blue Navi asked, surprised. "Yeah, I'm Rockman. What can I do for you?"

Ulrich rubbed the back of his head and looked around. "Well, I'm an independent Navi that's way out of his usual stomping grounds. Glyde said you could get me a translation program, but it might be tricky since I don't have a PET." He knew what a PET was, the handheld device in the real world that stored all of the Navi's data and served to link the operator and Navi.

"Hrm. Usually for a translation program the data's installed onto the PET and the operator has to enable and disable it," Rockman mused. "Without a PET… I wonder if Papa could help you."

"Your dad?" Ulrich guessed, wondering how a Navi could have a dad. Then he wondered if maybe he meant his operator's dad.

"Uh-huh. Papa works at the Science Labs with Navis, maybe he can figure out something. You can't just speak French everywhere. Plus it's dangerous for independent Navis. Virus attacks have been on the rise." Tilting his head as if listening to someone Ulrich couldn't hear, he nodded. "Yes, Netto-kun. What's your name?"

"Ulrich," the brunette replied. "Can Netto help?"

"He said yes. I'll take you to the Science Labs. Papa will be glad to have an independent Navi."

"What do you mean, have? I don't belong to anybody!" Ulrich said fiercely.

"Of course not," Rockman replied, motioning for Ulrich to follow him. They exited the building and set off across the city. "I mean, if you're willing, Papa might be able to get a lot of good data on independent Navis."

"If I'm willing, huh?" Ulrich asked skeptically. What if this mysterious scientist found out he'd used to be human?

"Right. Papa would never dream of doing something so invasive against your will. He treats Navis just as if we were humans."

That was a relief. Ulrich kept his hand on his saber as they ventured through the city, leaving behind public shops and passing what looked like private businesses. After a while they came upon one that looked just like any other, but this one Rockman turned into without hesitation.

Inside was a pair of guards. One look at Ulrich's escort, however, and they waved him through. Ulrich thought this was rather odd but thought nothing of it, still following Rockman through the twists and turns until they arrived in an area that was made of a plain blue floor and scrolling computer code.

"Papa?" Rockman asked. He then said something in Japanese that Ulrich couldn't understand, only picking out his name. After a moment where Ulrich heard nothing Rockman said something else.

"Well?" Ulrich wanted to know, impatient.

"Papa says that he should be able to install a translation program. He just wants to analyze your data first so he can fit it in properly without damaging your core programs. Is that all right?"

Ulrich nodded, hoping that he wasn't making a big mistake.

A tube materialized in front of him, the glass hovering above the black mechanical base invitingly. "Then please get in there," Rockman requested.

The former human stepped onto the plate, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in his gut as the glass lowered. The world wavered for a moment before stabilizing and Ulrich realized that he wasn't looking out onto a blue field anymore. He was in a glass tube in what looked like a laboratory, a middle-aged human with brown hair and glasses standing next to a child that, if Ulrich had to guess, was his son. The younger boy also had brown hair, though it was tied back with a blue bandana sporting Rockman's symbol. He was wearing an orange vest with a white long-sleeved shirt under it, black shorts, and orange shoes.

"I take it you're Netto," Ulrich guessed, eyeing the child.

The elder said something that Ulrich couldn't understand, going over to type at a keyboard. The younger just stared at him, making him feel slightly uncomfortable.

After a few moments and an odd tingling feeling somewhere in his head Ulrich felt dizzy and shook his head, leaning against the glass for support. "Ugh. Whatever you're doing is making me feel like I gotta throw up."

"Can Navis throw up?" the child asked.

"We don't really eat here," Ulrich mused. "So, I guess not." A second later he blinked, then looked at Netto. "Hey, I understood you!"

"The program's been successfully installed," the older man replied. "I'm sorry I couldn't introduce myself earlier. I'm Yuuichiro Hikari, the scientist in charge of the Science Labs. This is my son, Netto. You're Ulrich, right?"

Wordlessly the former human nodded.

"It's quite interesting that a Navi like you managed to get way out here. You say that you're independent?"

"No PET," Ulrich agreed. "I was created by a kid named Jeremie as a project," he invented on the spot. "When he was done he let me loose into the Internet. I haven't been here long. Actually, when Aquaman found me, I'd wandered off a cliff into the Digital Sea." Which was pretty close to the truth, actually.

"What do you plan on doing now that you're here?" Netto wanted to know.

Ulrich shrugged, glancing away. "Dunno. Rockman mentioned that virus attacks were getting bad so I think my best bet is to stay somewhere that viruses can't easily get to. Internet City seems pretty nice."

"Are you going to try to get back to France?" Doctor Hikari inquired. "We could try to help you find Jeremie."

It was a spot of hope that wouldn't do much good, Ulrich thought. "He didn't want me," he lied, stomach clenching. Jeremie was a good friend and he had no doubt that, to a Navi, he'd have made a great operator. "He wanted to make a Navi that was truly independent and he did. I was too independent and he told me to never come back." He reminded himself to breathe, even though as a digital body he found that he didn't really need to. He just had to make Netto and Doctor Hikari believe him so he never had to explain it again. "He told me that once I was gone he'd destroy the PET. Really, I can't go back."

Dead silence greeted him after he finished, and he coughed uncomfortably. "So, thanks for the translation program," he said awkwardly. "Can you send me back now?"

Wordlessly Doctor Hikari pressed a few buttons. The world wavered again and once his vision cleared Ulrich found himself back in the virtual world. Rockman was wearing the same stunned look that his operator had sported, but he shook himself out of it as soon as the former human appeared. "Ah, so you want to go back to Internet City, then?" the Navi asked weakly.

* * *

Ulrich supposed, a few days later while he was darting up a building in Internet City, that at the time the bare facts of the situation hadn't sunk in. He was running, now, to try and escape those facts, despite the odd stares his light trail was getting. His Super Sprint, he decided in the part of his mind that was still rational, wasn't a common ability in Navis.

Not like he cared. At the moment he was trying to outrun the emotions that had finally caught up with him.

His first realization, after three solid days awake and no food, was that he wasn't human anymore. He'd kept thinking of himself as human, treating his jaunt in the Internet as only one more venture onto Lyoko. Even though he'd known that he wouldn't be able to go back to the real world, he hadn't felt it, not really.

His second realization, while he was careening against the pull of false gravity, was that he was completely alone in his predicament. There was no Jeremie chattering in his ear, trying to cheer him up and assure him that he was still human and that he would get home, eventually. The link that he'd had with the other boy had been severed upon his fall into the Digital Sea.

He reached the top of the building and balanced on the edge, calculating at a glance the angle he could launch from, how much force it would cost him to turn in midair, what sort of damage he could expect upon landing from such a high point.

And this thought process, one that took a fraction of a second, led him to his third realization.

Even if he was able to go back, he'd never be the same.

Decision made, he crouched and leapt, twisting around and landing on a nearby ledge. He had barely touched simulated concrete before he was airborne, flipping again and righting himself in time to land on another ledge.

He'd noticed the change only a short while ago. He'd been hanging around an online message board, craving a bit of normal human contact but unable to figure out how to access the messages. The forum took the form of a room full of blackboard-like pushpin boards, hundreds of them arranged in neat rows according to topic. When Ulrich had attempted to read the boards normally, however, blank white pieces of paper had greeted his bare eyes.

It hadn't been hard, not really. The past few days had been spent patrolling the borders of Internet City, observing the Navis coming and going and figuring out how to find the links to the outside. To a true Navi the links probably were obvious but to Ulrich, it had taken hours of watching before he'd picked up on the trick.

He'd simply reached out and touched the paper on the board. It had opened immediately, something that had never happened on Lyoko. The only one, back then, who had had power over raw data was Aelita. The humans in the group could no more have opened a file in Lyoko than fly on their own. The fact that he even considered that he could told him more than he wanted to. The message hadn't even been anything special. It had been written by an 18-year-old college student asking for a study partner for a test. Ulrich had closed the message and raced out.

Now he was careening towards the ground at speeds that had his gut clenching in fear, but he didn't even blink as he hit and rolled a few times until his energy was spent. Other Navis looked at him, whispering behind their hands, but Ulrich didn't care. He knelt on the ground, catching his unneeded breath.

When he couldn't hold back his tears any longer he raced out of Internet City altogether, taking refuge in an area he later learned was the computer network of a traffic camera. He didn't leave until he couldn't summon another drop.

* * *

Two long weeks after his arrival in Japan's network had been spent almost exclusively in Internet City. Ulrich liked to keep to the rooftops, where there were far fewer Navis than on the streets and offered him the most privacy. Only rarely had he ventured beyond the firewalls and challenged the viruses of the internet, well aware of the limitations of his current situation. If he lost all of his life points in a battle, he would be deleted. No operator meant that he had no way of recharging his life points in a dire situation, nor could they be recharged at all. Any life points he lost were gone for good.

If he were honest with himself, he only risked his neck because he was so bored. Figuring out the tricks to being an internet entity wasn't entertainment so much as a survival necessity, and he'd quickly given up on message boards when they made him more homesick than happy. Solitude wasn't really the best way of dealing with his situation either, but he didn't want to integrate himself into Internet society either. Doing so felt like he'd given up on being human, something he wasn't ready to do yet.

He hadn't run into Rockman again during his trips around the city. It was such a large place that it wasn't really surprising; just like a real city, random encounters were much less likely to be repeated. He saw Navis of all shapes and sizes, only a few of which he'd exchanged words with. Instead he'd kept to himself and trawled the rooftops, observing but not really feeling like he was part of this world.

Many stories above the pavement was a place he considered his. His rooftop was on the highest building in the commercial area, not easily reached by even those Navis who could fly. He'd found it on his rooftop jaunts, this out of the way rooftop on what looked like a deserted building, and so here was where he'd begun to gather what few things he could in a virtual environment. Mostly he was interested in news stories, craving details on the world he could no longer interact with, clips he'd gleaned from brief visits to one of the many areas where headlines poured into Internet City. Literal fountains of raw data sprouted up at common meeting points in the city, and one only needed to dip a hand or other limb into the simulated water. On his rooftop he'd gathered his news clips, though at the moment all he could do was place them in a general pile in one corner.

Two weeks, long weeks, passed before Ulrich met Rockman again. The former human was making his daily trek to the news fountains when Navis began screaming. Instinct kicked in, protective instinct honed by countless numbers of XANA attacks, and before Ulrich was aware of any conscious thought he had his katana drawn and was running towards the source of the screaming. He rushed into the plaza, news fountain scattered into digital rubble, and deflected a cannon bolt back at the turret mounted virus. Somehow, a dozen Cannon viruses had appeared in the once-peaceful plaza, accompanied by the yellow-helmed viruses that Ulrich recognized as Mettaurs.

He wasn't aware of the progression of battle. He never was, not really; his body moved and reacted on its own, while his conscious mind registered only briefly and sporadically. He couldn't afford to think, not when thinking more often than not resulted in his losing precious life points. Back on Lyoko, when he'd had the luxury of knowing that a fatal hit wasn't really fatal, he hadn't had to focus so much. But now…

The battle had been mercifully brief, him and Rockman working together to eliminate the viruses that had somehow worked their way past Internet City's powerful firewalls. At the end he'd taken only two hits, though how many life points he had left was a mystery. Unlike on Lyoko, each hit shot burning pain from the impact sites, pain that lingered and distracted him as he tried to stay alive. The pain wouldn't fade for another few hours; it was one more reminder of the fact that he was a part of the virtual world.

"Thanks for the help," Rockman grinned, his weapon folding back out of sight into his right glove. "It's lucky you were here!"

"It was no problem," Ulrich shrugged, sheathing his saber once he was sure no threat remained. He hid his winces as he moved his injured limbs, not wanting Rockman to worry about him. With the fountain out of commission his next stop for news was a few blocks away, a distance easily traversed when he went at super speeds.

Rockman's hand on his arm stopped him. "Hey, have you been okay? I saw the hits you took. Netto-kun wants to know if you need any help."

The human frowned. "I'm fine. It was just a few hits." Hits that he couldn't recover from, but it wasn't like that could be helped.

"Come on," Rockman urged, tugging on his arm. "Papa's been worried about you, too. It wouldn't hurt to let Papa look at you, right?

That was how Ulrich found himself back in the Science Labs, though this time he wasn't transported to the real world. Instead he spread his arms and allowed a red beam to scan him.

"Well," Doctor Hikari's voice echoed around him. It was the first time since Lyoko that he'd heard a voice like this, and it startled him until he was once again used to voices appearing out of thin air. "It looks like you've taken quite a bit of damage since the last time I saw you. Don't you have any self-maintenance programs?"

Ulrich shook his head. "Not that I know of. Jeremie was more interested in my combat capabilities."

Doctor Hikari hmphed. "We'll just have to see about that. Do you mind if I install a basic restoration program? It'll automatically recharge your hit points over a set period of time."

"I don't mind at all!" And what a relief it would be, knowing that he could heal any damage he'd inevitably take. "Is there a way you can let me check my life points, too?"

"You can't do that already? No matter, it'll be simple to do. Just wait one moment."

It was one more means of surviving in this virtual world. Now all he had to do was wave his hand in a specific manner and a status window would pop up, showing more than just his life points. It allowed him to perform a few simple tasks that would normally be left to an operator, like enabling or disabling installed programs. Not that he had many programs installed, but it was a nice gesture.

* * *

Another function of the status window, he found after a few days, was the ability to make and receive phone calls from other Navis. He'd been quite surprised when, while organizing his data bits on his rooftop, Rockman's face had appeared and invited him to hang out. Without much else to do he agreed.

He'd found out then about one thing that made his whole situation much more bearable. Playing soccer against Navis that had no qualms about using their particular powers was nothing like playing in the real world. Rather than crying foul, he used his Triplicate ability to show them why he was the top scorer in his class. After the game he got many Navis' phone numbers and standing invitations to join them any time he wanted.

And it was thus that he fell into a sort of routine. He wouldn't ever forget who he'd been, but he could make a new path for himself separate from his identity as a Lyoko warrior. He didn't count on the fame he'd garner as an Independent Navi living in Internet City. Word spread about him, the samurai Navi who each day would visit the news fountains and play soccer in the stadium. Soon he found himself the subject of many interested visitors and one particularly persistent frog Navi who kept trying to get an interview with him. He didn't like the attention; his life wasn't a circus or a show for the enjoyment of the casual viewer.

Thankfully his chosen rooftop was well out of the way and he hardly had any visitors. He had a place to go that was away from all of the curious Navis that would want to poke their noses into his life. With Rockman and Doctor Hikari's help he was able to transform his space into something more than a cluttered roof. Virtual bookshelves to store his newsclips, a short table, chairs, all of this helped him to feel as if, even on the vast network, he had this space to call his own. It was a small comfort, but it didn't help to completely dull the loneliness he felt.

He still missed his home. He still wished he could return to the real world, wished he could ever forget that a human could ever be virtualized onto the network. But he could make his situation bearable.

* * *

Well, how was it? Look forward to the next chapter eventually! If you liked the honorifics, let me know and I won't edit 'em out of the rest of the fic. If you want to reserve judgment, let me know as well.


	2. Chapter 2

And here's the second chapter!

* * *

Warnings and disclaimer are the same as in the first chapter.

* * *

"Now, can anyone answer the question for me?" Mrs. Mariko looked out over the classroom, eyeing all of the students who were pointedly not looking her way. Behind her, the blackboard was suddenly active, numbers and letters writing themselves. Rather than be alarmed, however, she looked approvingly over the work before nodding. "Well done, Ulrich."

The boy himself appeared in a window on the blackboard, scratching behind his head. Before any more words could be said the bell rang.

"All right, class, your Navis have your homework for tomorrow. Be sure to have it finished or else."

On the network, Mrs. Mariko's Navi was handing out data sheets to each Navi before they logged out. Ulrich was the last to receive his sheet, the Navi looking at him approvingly.

"It's good to see some initiative from you," she said kindly. She was a standard model Navi, her body forest green with a dark green helmet and gloves. "Are you starting to get used to the class?"

The boy nodded. "Yes, sensei. Thanks for allowing me to attend." He was somewhat glad that Netto was around his age. He didn't have to worry about wandering between classes, which had been his original plan until Netto and Rockman had talked with Mrs. Mariko about letting him join. He didn't really know why he wanted to learn, though he supposed it made him feel at least moderately normal again.

Ulrich knew that the situation hadn't been easy to arrange. He'd been known on the network for eight months before he'd followed Netto to school one day, missing that once hated activity. Rockman had caught him and two weeks later he'd gotten a call from Mrs. Mariko's Navi, instructing him to be on time for class the next day. He hadn't dared ask just how he was being counted in the school's system. It was a welcome relief from the monotony that was the internet.

Two months later he wasn't sure he had made the right decision, but he was learning a lot. Japan's curriculum seemed to be about on par with his, though it moved at a much higher speed that was almost dizzying. He'd heard horror stories from Yumi about the intense studying that went on in Japan; it looked as if she hadn't been lying.

Ulrich pocketed his homework and grinned. "I'll see you tomorrow, Mariko-sensei!"

Running through the school's network wasn't too much trouble; he'd long since memorized the various links. He was out of the school within seconds, decapitating a Cannon without really thinking about it and racing through Densan's public servers. He was headed for Netto's home network, where he had a standing invitation to visit. He'd made use of that invitation ever since he'd started attending school again, studying with Netto and helping Rockman prod the brunette into actually doing his homework.

He found Netto's link easily enough, passing through the security Programs with a smile. He didn't even set off the firewalls anymore. From there it was a short trip through the TV and the thermostat to Netto's computer, where he settled in a corner and waited for the human to come home. To pass the time he pulled out the homework and began to work the problems.

"Having trouble?" Rockman's voice asked, the Navi's shadow falling over him.

Ulrich shook his head. "It's really easy." Not that computer programming had been easy for him before. He chalked up his new affinity for it to his living on the network. He'd had to learn computer programming as a survival mechanism. Though, he mused as he put the finishing touches on the work, he'd gotten a lot more than a standard education. Netto's dad was still highly interested in him and he'd taken advantage of the opportunity to learn.

"You did learn from the best," Netto chuckled, his face appearing behind Rockman. "Care to give me some pointers?"

"Netto-kun," Rockman sighed. "You know you're supposed to be learning yourself. What would Papa think?"

Ulrich watched the two banter back and forth, pocketing his homework. After a minute he stood and brushed nonexistent dust off the back of his pants. "Looks like I'm done. Want me to stick around?"

"Yeah! We found a really awesome place on the Net, we think you'll really like it." Netto's face was grinning. "Actually Aquaman found it. It's a really weird place, it looks like a forest! There are viruses there, though. Me and Rockman explored it after Papa cracked the code to get in it and it's actually sort of peaceful. The viruses there aren't too bad so Papa decided to open it up to the public. Lots of Navis have been there already!"

Ulrich had noticed that Netto and Rockman had been preoccupied the past couple of days. "So that's what you were up to."

"Uh-huh. Rockman can take you there if you want. You can't go into the area itself from an external link, something Papa's been working on, but we can get to the area connected to it." Netto looked away from the screen. "Want to come?"

Ulrich shrugged. "Just make sure you do your homework later."

"You're just as bad as Rockman! Sure you don't want to join us?" Netto waved a PET in view of the window, the sight of which made Ulrich cringe. "This is still open for you to use if you want."

"No thanks." The brunette Navi knew just what Netto was referring to. After a near-fatal encounter with a Navi called Forte Ulrich had awoken in the PET, all of his wounds healed. Netto had offered to let him stay as his Navi, to program him into the PET and grant him all of the benefits and weaknesses that came with being paired with a human.

He wasn't prepared to give up his independence that easily. He had quite the nest in Internet City and that was enough for him.

"Well, I'll keep it anyway." Netto stowed the PET and shrugged. "I'll do my homework while you guys are having fun."

"Good, Netto-kun." Rockman turned to Ulrich. "Ready to go?"

Ulrich nodded. "Yeah."

They appeared at the edge of the Digital Sea, a sight that set Ulrich's nerves on edge. He'd only been to this area a handful of times, when he'd felt a twinge of sadness and come to hope pointlessly. The area had changed since his last visit, though. It had taken on the form of an actual beach, Ulrich's feet sinking in the virtual sand. Another new feature was the globe half-submerged a little ways from the beach, a wooden bridge crossing the span of ocean to connect the globe with the mainland.

"Is that the new area you mentioned?" the former human asked, eyeing the structure. "It looks like it came right out of the Digital Sea."

"Yeah. We don't know who programmed it, but it's not dangerous. No harmful effects have been seen on the network. Things do sometimes wash out of the Digital Sea." Rockman pointed to where the bridge started. "Want to go see?"

Ulrich nodded and together they ran, stopping only when they were directly in front of the globe. "How do you get in?"

Rockman grinned. "Just lean against it." To illustrate he put his hands on the globe's surface and melted into it. It kind of reminded Ulrich of when he'd seen Aelita enter Towers on Lyoko before. Shrugging away the memory, he imitated Rockman. The surface gave away under his touch and he fell through it, emerging onto a peacefully lit forest.

It was an eerily familiar forest. Ulrich rubbed his eyes and looked again, just to make sure he wasn't dreaming. Not like he had dreamed in the past ten months. When he looked again he couldn't help his gasp of shock.

"I don't believe it!" he said, taking a few steps into the shadow of a tree. "This looks like…" He caught himself just in time, glancing back at Rockman. "Never mind," he said hastily. "So this just showed up?"

"Four days ago," Rockman confirmed, looking around the impossibility of Lyoko's Forest Sector somehow being in Japan. "I've been all over. It's a relatively large area, about as big as the whole of Densan's network. We just opened it to the public this morning."

If this really was Lyoko, Ulrich would have bet that at the first sign of outside influence Jeremie would have launched a return to the past. He'd had to relive many days in the months prior, the result of the returns to the past that would have resulted from XANA's attacks. The fact that they still happened told Ulrich many things. It meant that XANA was still a force to be reckoned with, and that his friends were still fighting. It gave him hope.

So, he decided as he ran along the peacefully lit path, this wasn't Lyoko. Just how a copy of Lyoko ended up in Japan was a mystery, though. Briefly, he wondered what would happen if he entered a tower. Would it let him poke around in its data?

"Look, there's one of those viruses." Rockman stopped mid-stride and pointed down a side path. Ulrich followed his finger and saw a few of XANA's little cockroach monsters skittering down the path. "Want to try and catch one for Papa?"

A Kankrelat stopped and turned to look at them. It only took it a second to start firing its lasers, which Ulrich blocked with ease. "What do you want it for?"

"So Papa can study them, of course." Rockman lifted his hand and let it morph into his Rockbuster. "He made up a program, we just have to get into the right spot and I can launch it."

Ulrich gripped his saber and nodded, though he was wondering if it would be a good idea to let Rockman have the Kankrelat. A replica of Lyoko was bad enough, but if XANA could spawn monsters that meant the evil program wasn't too far behind. The Kankrelat had gotten a good look at Ulrich, too. If XANA still remembered him, then that meant…

"More monsters behind us!" the Lyoko warrior warned, trusting Rockman to keep the roach at bay while he surveyed the scene. Two Krabs materialized behind them and he wasted no time. "Area Steal!"

The chip effect had him out of harm's way as both giant crabs fired at once. He phased back in above one, plunging his saber into the eye and rolling off before it exploded. Despite the length of time since his last encounter he remembered quite well what had happened and he had no desire to repeat his plunge into the Digital Sea. His saber was up and blocking the other Krab's lasers before he'd rolled to his feet, regaining his footing with ease.

"I thought we were trying to catch them!" Rockman protested, even as he ducked a laser from the Kankrelat.

"You can do that," Ulrich said grimly. "I'm not taking any chances." Focusing, he split himself into three. "Triplicate!"

One clone went high while the other ran around, distracting the Krab. Trusting his clones to take care of it, he turned and charged the Kankrelat.

It was over in a few seconds. One clone took a hit while the other landed the killing blow, while all Ulrich did was deflect a laser and kick the Kankrelat into the Digital Sea. The other Kankrelats had started back towards them, but upon the death of their buddy decided it was better to leave them alone.

"That was fun," he said dryly, fusing with his last clone and bringing up his status window. He was down to 75% of his life points, he noted. "I think I'd better bow out, though. Don't want to take any chances."

He'd come back later, after all of his life points had recharged.

"All right. See you later!"

Ulrich retreated. It was easy to get out of the replica. All he had to do was follow the path back the way he'd come, where it met the wall of the dome. Leaning against the wall, he fell back through into the beach area.

* * *

The Forest Sector was quiet, all of the Navis that had been there before gone to bed with their operators. Ulrich raced through the trees, not bothering to stop just in case XANA decided to drop a surprise on his head, until he reached a tower. The tall white structure was surrounded by blue smoke, indicating that it wasn't activated, and without further ado he raced towards it.

It looked just the same as the ones on the real Lyoko. Windows filled with blue code covered the dark blue interior, the platform shaped like XANA's eye lighting up as he walked towards the middle.

"Jeremie?" he asked aloud, not really expecting an answer. He wasn't disappointed, although he was still puzzled. Just how had a replica of Lyoko ended up outside of Densan?

"Well, it was worth a shot." Glancing upwards, Ulrich spotted the platform that held the interface inside of the towers. He'd seen Aelita get lifted up there often enough, but the tower didn't seem to want to give him the same courtesy. Instead, he drew on his latest ability.

"Area Steal!"

The chip had been programmed in the week before, meant to be used as a last resort if he faced overwhelming odds. Instead he'd integrated the chip as part of his arsenal, used whenever it was convenient. It had to recharge between uses, about ten minutes if he'd calculated it right. But when he could use it, it was pretty darned useful.

He reappeared a few feet above the platform, landing without too much trouble. Despite that, the interface didn't pop up for him, even when he poked the air where he guessed it should be a few times.

"Ah well. At least I tried." With his teleportation out of commission, he took the old-fashioned route and jumped. He brought up his status window to check the time. "Might as well hang around until that recharges. I might need it if XANA decides to go after me again."

He had every sympathy for Aelita now. When she'd been confined to Lyoko she'd had to take cover in towers too.

Once his Area Steal had recharged he dashed out of the tower, only to run into something that yelped indignantly as they careened over each other. They rolled a few feet before coming to a stop, Ulrich on top of the mysterious other. It took a few seconds for the world to stop spinning and he could get a look at who he had run into.

"How'd you get in there?" Rockman asked, not seeming to mind that he'd just been knocked head over heels. Ulrich clambered off of him and checked his life points, relieved that he hadn't lost any in the tumble.

"Get in where? What're you doing here, shouldn't you be waiting for Netto to wake up?"

Rockman pointed behind him. "The tower. No one's been able to get in there, so how did you?"

Ulrich had to think quickly. He hadn't expected that to be an issue. It dawned on him, the perfect excuse. "I didn't know. Maybe it's because I'm an independent Navi? Maybe the tower can tell the difference." Rather, he thought as Rockman accepted the excuse and the two of them made their way to the beach, he expected that it was because he'd been a Lyoko warrior. Perhaps the Replica was still connected to the Super Computer and it knew that he was supposed to be there. Or maybe there was some difference he didn't know about in his core data and Rockman's. There wasn't really any way to be sure, not without a thorough scan.

Now he just hoped that Rockman didn't track down another independent Navi and get him to try.

"You off to your roof?" the blue Navi asked as they paused just outside Internet City's access link.

"Might as well. Don't want to get caught by surprise," Ulrich shrugged. The Internet was still dangerous with its random virus attacks. "See you when Netto gets up?"

"Sure. There's no school tomorrow, what do you want to do?" Rockman rubbed the back of his head.

"Dunno yet. It's a long time till morning." About three hours, if he was right. "I'll stop by later."

They parted ways, Rockman plugging out while Ulrich passed through Internet City's security and made his way to his roof.

* * *

Over the next few months Ulrich familiarized himself with the Lyoko Replica. His days he spent hanging around like usual, the better to keep Rockman from guessing at his true motives , but the night was when he ventured out to Lyoko. He didn't know why he kept going there, not really. Every night there was no sign of the rest of his friends, only XANA's monsters to greet him with lasers.

It became a sort of game. He taunted XANA with his presence and XANA responded with full force, bringing out all of the stops to try and smash him into paste. It was reckless and stupid, in hindsight. He just felt like he was doing something useful at last.

That feeling didn't last very long. Nearly two months after Lyoko's first appearance, two months of cat-and-mouse with Ulrich escaping by inches and hairs, XANA got serious.

The day started like any other. Ulrich made his way to the school network in preparation for the day, once there sitting at one of the desks and going over his homework from the night before. After school he went back to Internet City.

Everything snowballed from there. He was walking down the street – normally, not Sprinting – when people started screaming and running towards him. He jumped above them to avoid the stampede, clinging to a balcony and trying to see just what was causing trouble in town this time. A crescent of energy sliced towards him and with a muffled curse he was force to leap out of the way.

He rolled to his feet on the ground, katana out and ready to block the giant cleaver headed straight for his head. The impact rattled his entire body, but his sword held and with a grunt he pushed backwards. That gave him just enough room to dash out of harm's way, coming to a stop a few feet away.

He took one good look at his assailant and gasped. "William?"

The figure in black, XANA's eye emblazoned on his forehead and giant sword poised to come at Ulrich again, certainly looked like William. It had Ulrich's former classmates' unruly black hair, the same face sneering out at him. The only thing that was different, the former human thought with dark amusement, was that this time they were in the Internet and not back in class.

The dark figure didn't answer him with words. The sword swung around, Ulrich leaping aside at the last minute, and with that the battle was on. Swords clashed against each other and broke apart, William the perfect image of brute force against Ulrich's agility. They were evenly matched until Rockman finally joined the fray, his Rockbuster dealing the final blow. With a roar William disintegrated into black dust, dust that sank into the ground without a trace.

Breathing heavily Ulrich sheathed his sword, bringing up his status window and wincing. One more hit and he'd have been toast. "Well, that was fun," he quipped, ensuring that the regeneration program was at work before dismissing the window.

"Who was that?" Rockman asked, his weapon vanishing while he turned to check on Ulrich. "He seemed like was after you."

Ulrich resisted the urge to say something like, "Duh." Instead he shrugged. "I don't know." A boldfaced lie, really. He knew it was William, who was somehow under XANA's control. "I'm just wondering how he managed to get into Internet City." The firewalls should have prevented that.

"He looked like a Navi, so the security programs probably let him through. I'll have a word with them later. Let's get to Papa so he can look at you, first. You took quite a beating," Rockman noted with concern.

Considering he felt like he'd been beaten to a pulp with a baseball bat, Ulrich wasn't in much of a condition to argue. He limped after Rockman, resigned to the fact that unlike on Lyoko, any damage he took could be felt as analogous to pain in the real world. It had been a novelty at first but now it was just a pain.

* * *

William showed up more often than not, now. When, Ulrich assumed, he wasn't attacking the real Lyoko, he was there to attack Ulrich. In school, in Internet City, even when he was just walking down the virtual street there he was. After a few solid days of nothing but combat and time healing he forewent going anywhere.

After a few days of that, XANA apparently decided that it was time to try a different tactic. Ulrich found himself in a nightmare, his Navi friends coming after him with XANA's symbol in their eyes and he had to find various ways to get out of their sight before he really did lose all his life points and die. The one thing he noticed, intriguingly enough, was that the only one of his friends that didn't attack him was Rockman. He saw XANA's black smoke swirl around the blue Navi a few times but Rockman, somehow, was immune to XANA's possession.

It was food for thought.

With Rockman's help Ulrich survived and XANA conceded defeat. The reprieve didn't last long, enough for Ulrich to rest but not long enough to give him any sense of security. Within a week William was once again after him and he was forced to start hiding in various obscure areas.

Rockman found him in his out of the way hidey hole. He'd taken refuge in a little-visited garden shed somewhere in Netto's neighborhood.

"You okay?" the blue Navi asked, sitting down next to him. Ulrich was leaning against a wheelbarrow, saber in his arms and head tilted back to rest against the metal.

"I thought when I first got stranded here it was bad," Ulrich groaned. "Now with Wi- that Navi attacking me everywhere I go, I can't do anything. It sucks."

"You could be safe, you know," Netto's voice spoke up. "If we link you to the PET then when you lose all your hit points you'll just be logged out, not deleted."

"No way," Ulrich said grimly. He wasn't that desperate.

Rockman sighed. "Then what do you want to do?"

"Let's go back to that forest," the brunette said thoughtfully. Maybe if he tossed William into the Digital Sea then it would give him a few days' reprieve. "That Navi has the same symbol as those monsters, so maybe they're connected."

Rockman nodded. "I'll go with you. If that Navi shows up again I can buy you time to get away.

"Thanks."

It didn't take them long to get to the Replica, even less time to get into it and race down the forest paths. Ulrich kept his speed at a level where Rockman could keep up, passing the few Navis that still frequented the area. Traffic to the Replica had steadily declined, what with William tending to attack Navis when he wasn't tormenting Ulrich. Now only the bravest and strongest Navis dared to venture into the deceptively peaceful forest.

"No viruses so far," Rockman noted as they paused in front of a tower. "Weird. Usually when you come here a whole bunch of them decide to attack. What's keeping them?"

Ulrich was trying not to ask that question. "Let's take advantage of that break and see if we can find something."

They raced off again, heading for the next tower. "Papa wants to know if you can get some data about these towers for him," Rockman brought up. "You're the only one that can get in there so you're the only one that can."

"Uh-huh. I can't access any data in there, though." They stopped for a breather. "It wouldn't do any good."

Rockman sighed. "It was worth a- what's that?"

Ulrich whirled around to see where Rockman was pointing and swore. "The Scyphozoa!"

"What?" Rockman summoned his weapon and took aim. "How do you know?"

"It doesn't matter, we need to get out of here!" Ulrich pulled on the Navi's arm until he turned, then set a quick pace in the other direction. The jellyfish-like monster gave chase, following them through the twisting paths.

Their way was suddenly blocked by what looked like a metal sphere with a split directly down its middle. They both skidded to a stop just in time to avoid its attack, the sphere separating into two parts and revealing its innards. From its central frame it emitted a solid ring of light, which expanded in a perfect circle towards where the two boys were standing.

Rolling to his feet, Ulrich swore and glanced behind him, where the Scyphozoa was advancing. He heard Rockman firing at the Megatank ahead of them, heard the ricochets that meant the attacks were ineffective. "Rockman, plug out," he told the blue Navi. "I can Area Steal away, these monsters can't leave the area. I don't want you to get hurt."

"I'm not going to leave you alone," Rockman said. "I can lose all my hit points, no problem."

"It's not that I'm worried about," Ulrich sighed.

There wasn't much he could do, short of attacking Rockman himself and forcing a logout. He left the Megatank to Rockman, turning instead to face the Scyphozoa. It ignored him, even as he took a few swipes at a few tentacles as it passed. Instead it went straight for Rockman.

"Look out!" he cried, but it was too late. The Megatank knocked the blue Navi off balance, which was the opening that the jellyfish monster needed to snap him up in his tentacles. Ulrich made to intervene, only to have the Megatank focus on him. He was forced to waste precious seconds dodging the monster's lasers, sprinting forward between blasts before he could reach the monster's only weak point.

The Megatank fired one last laser before Ulrich was able to strike the eye on the monster's inner frame. Ducking out of the way, he raced towards Rockman, only to watch as the Scyphozoa dropped the blue Navi. On guard, he backed away a few steps. There were only two reasons the Scyphozoa would drop its victim. The first was when its tentacles were severed, forcing it to drop its victim.

Rockman rolled to his feet, 'buster already firing. Ulrich easily blocked the few shots, sprinting away from the possessed Navi.

"Netto, can you hear me?" he asked thin air. "Plug Rockman out, now! He's being controlled by a monster."

"What happened?" the human demanded, his face appearing in a window right next to Ulrich. "I can't do anything from my end!"

"He was attacked by a monster and now he's trying to kill me," the former human sighed. A bolt skimmed his side and he hissed in pain. "You can't eve plug him out?"

"No! What's going on? Rockman!" Netto sounded panicked.

That left it up to Ulrich to make Rockman log out. With a sigh he passed a rock and whirled back around, splitting into three. He went over the top of the rock while his doubles went around each side, three sabers heading straight for the Navi.

Rockman blocked the first one, shooting the double and causing it to vanish. The second and third struck home and the Navi cried out in pain.

"Ulrich, what're you doing?" Netto yelled. "You'll hurt him!"

"Would you rather let him delete me?" Ulrich snapped. His clone took another swipe at Rockman, landing a hit before the Navi impatiently deleted it. "Sorry, Netto. Hopefully once he's back in the PET you can debug him. "

"Doubtful. If Netto can't get him out then trying to force a logout might delete him," a new voice spoke up. Ulrich saw a flash of red and white before Rockman was knocked backwards into a tree.

"Blues!" Ulrich couldn't have been happier to see the red Navi, even if the two of them didn't really talk all that often. Blues was a friend of Rockman's, not his. "What do you suggest, then? He's not going to stop until I'm dead! I'm really not interested in dying."

"Enzan-sama is working on a way to capture him so that Hikari-hakase can free him from whatever is controlling him. Until then, we just need to keep him busy." Blues shifted into a defensive stance, the sword on his right arm held so the blade covered most of his face.

Ulrich let Blues handle the next round, instead checking on his life points. He was down to less than half with both of his clones gone and the few hits he'd taken. "I can't last that long. I'm gonna go hide."

"Where?" Netto asked worriedly.

"The only place Rockman can't get into," Ulrich sighed. "I'm going to go hide in a tower."

He took off, leaving the sound of fighting behind him as he sprinted for the nearest tower. Monsters tried to bar his way but he dodged around them.

"Ulrich, what's going on?" Netto demanded. "You knew what that monster was that attacked Rockman and you're the only one that can get into those towers. How are you related to this area?"

"I don't know anything!" Ulrich protested. He finally reached the tower and wasted no time in jumping in, rolling to a stop in the middle of the platform. Catching his breath was next on his list of priorities and he lay there for a few minutes.

"Right." Netto's voice was skeptical but he dropped the topic for the moment. "Blues is doing well, Enzan said that the trap's almost ready. Then we can-"

There was a flash of light, and then the next thing Ulrich knew, he was back in the garden shed network with Rockman sitting next to him. The Navi shook his head, hand reaching up to rub his helmet as if he had a headache, before looking over at Ulrich. "Um, wasn't I just fighting with Blues?" he asked, at a loss. "I don't really remember. We went to the forest and then we got attacked by a jellyfish monster…"

Ulrich knew what had happened. His friends had launched the Return to the Past program, which meant that the whole fiasco with the Scyphozoa hadn't happened. "You remember that?"

"Yeah. Why are we back in Akihara? What happened?" Now Rockman looked really confused. "Why does my clock say that it's back to this morning?"

Ulrich winced. "I don't know," he lied. He was getting rather good at lying, he noticed with some amusement. "It happens to me sometimes but I don't really know why. Maybe it happened to you because of the Scyphozoa?" Which in itself was a mystery. Why had XANA gone after Rockman in the first place? The only thing Ulrich could think of off the top of his head was that it was because XANA hadn't been able to possess Rockman normally. But that just raised more questions than it answered. Why was Rockman being treated the same as Ulrich by XANA? Was the blue Navi somehow different from normal Navis?

Rockman shook his head. "I'm gonna go to the Science Labs and have Papa run a diagnostic. You should come, too."

Maybe XANA would leave him alone for the day. Ulrich nodded.


	3. Chapter 3

I thought about ending this chapter a page earlier than I did, but then decided it would be too cruel. Enjoy!  


* * *

All warnings and disclaimers are in the first chapter.

* * *

Two weeks passed before Ulrich decided to venture back to the forest. He planned on going alone, but was foiled when Rockman showed up at his rooftop and invited himself along.

"Be on guard," Ulrich warned as they prowled through the trees. "Remember what happened last time."

"I know." Doctor Hikari's scan of both Rockman and Ulrich hadn't been any different from the ones before, so all they could do was explain Rockman's tale of living the same morning over as some random data that had gotten mixed up in his memory files. Both Ulrich and Rockman knew that that wasn't really the case but they didn't push the issue.

XANA didn't send any monsters out to greet them, something that had their nerves on edge. After patrolling for a few hours without any sign of any viruses or other Navis Rockman was prepared to call it quits.

"There's nothing here," the blue Navi noted. "Not even any viruses. Think that whatever made them gave up?"

Ulrich shook his head. He thought he heard something, then, and tilted his head to listen. "Hey, you hear something? It sounds like fighting."

"Maybe some Navis have been keeping the monsters busy," Rockman shrugged. They took off in the direction of the distant laser blasts, wending their way through the trees until they came upon a tower. This one had green smoke around it, something Ulrich remembered as not a bad thing. Connected to the tower was an odd vehicle, a submarine with four pods, and at the base of the tower…

"Odd!" Ulrich cried, racing towards where his catboy friend was fending off a Krab. Behind the purple-clothed blonde was a familiar head of pink hair, Aelita shooting pink balls of energy at a bee-like monster. Yumi was nowhere to be seen.

Odd looked over at him, blinking in shock. "Ulrich? How the heck did you get here?"

"No time for that now! Let's take care of the monsters first. A Scyphozoa was hanging out around here a few weeks ago." Ulrich split himself into three, one clone going to protect Aelita while the other one tackled the Hornets hanging around. "We can catch up later."

Rockman was right behind Ulrich, his Rockbuster making short work of the flying monsters. "Ulrich, do you know these guys?" he asked in between shots.

"It's a long story," the former human replied, wincing when one of his clones vanished thanks to a lucky bolt. "For now let's help them clear out the monsters."

He hadn't even realized he'd switched languages on the fly when Odd whistled. "I didn't know you spoke Japanese!"

"Later!" Ulrich snapped, fusing with his last clone to keep his life points. He hadn't taken any damage yet so he guessed he still had around 75% health.

Between the four of them the monsters were made short work of. As Ulrich was sheathing his sword he found himself tackled to the ground by an exuberant catboy.

"You're here!" Odd shouted gleefully, squeezing him to his last life point. "How'd you do it, man? Last we saw you fell into the Digital Sea!"

Ulrich shook his head. "What about you guys? How'd you make it here? Was it that ship? Where's Yumi?"

"We should get somewhere safer first," Rockman cut in, speaking French for the benefit of Odd and Aelita. "We haven't seen that Scyphozoa or that strange Navi and I don't want to press our luck."

The two digitized humans nodded. "The tower should be safe enough," Aelita said. "Jeremie says there aren't any monsters nearby so we'll be safe for now."

Odd nodded and entered the tower, Aelita on his tail. Rockman looked at Ulrich with an unreadable look. "Would this be the same Jeremie that banished you?" he asked, voice cold.

"It's not as bad as I made it out to be," Ulrich admitted. "I can explain everything later."

"I can't get into the tower," Rockman pointed out. Ulrich rolled his eyes and shoved the Navi in front of him, smirking when he hit the surface of the tower and kept going. That act also served to answer some of Ulrich's questions about Rockman; the Tower letting the blue Navi in meant that as far as Lyoko was concerned, Rockman was part of it now. Netto squawked indignantly in his ear as he followed.

When he arrived in the tower Netto's voice cut off, which was something he was silently grateful for. He guessed that since Jeremie had the tower activated Netto didn't have even the minimal access connection to Rockman and Ulrich gave him. "So," he began, eyeing Odd and Aelita's new clothes. "Skintight bodysuits the next big thing at Kadic?"

Odd shrugged, cat ear twitching irritably. "Jeremie did it. Me, I liked my old outfit better."

"I like mine," Aelita giggled, twirling so her translucent skirt caught a slight wind. She was still dressed in pink, though it was darker than the pale pink from before. She also had shoulder pads made of the same translucent material as her skirt. Odd was in his skintight purple outfit from neck to toe, a darker purple than his previous one. "Yumi's is cute, too."

"I thought Jeremie told you to get lost and destroyed your PET," Rockman said accusingly. "Right, Netto-kun?"

Ulrich wasn't really surprised that there wasn't an answer. "I don't think Netto can hear us in here, Rockman. Oh, guys, this is Rockman," he added for his friends' benefit. "He was possessed by the Scyphozoa. If it hadn't been for a Return to the Past I'd have been toast."

"How did I end up in here, anyway?" Rockman wondered. "Last time I tried to get in the wall was solid. Why'd it let me in this time?"

"That would explain the new profile in the Supercomputer," Aelita murmured. "About two weeks ago, right?"

"Right," Ulrich confirmed. "So the Supercomputer recognizes him and now he can get into the towers?"

"And he'll probably remember when we launch a return to the past," Aelita nodded. "Your turn. How'd you end up here?"

Ulrich shrugged. "I was knocked into the Digital Sea, and then I woke up on the beach. Rockman's operator's dad is a scientist and he's been helping me out. I've been living on the network for the past year or so."

"That's it? No dramatic rescue, no fight for your life?" Odd sighed disappointedly. "Really, Ulrich. You're getting boring."

"I have been fighting for my life," Ulrich said defensively. "William's been coming to attack me almost every day. It's a pain."

"You've seen William?" Odd asked. "What's he like when he's not trying to kill us?"

"Let you know when I find out," Ulrich deadpanned. "So. Long story short for you guys is that you have a submarine that can traverse the Digital Sea?"

Aelita and Odd nodded.

"And for you, you're basically a Navi living on the Network now?" Aelita asked.

Ulrich nodded. "Pretty much, yeah." He brought up his status window and was relieved to see his life points recovering. "I'll stay in here a while longer, wait for my health to get back to maximum. Knowing my luck William's waiting out there."

"Jeremie says that he thinks he can link you back into our communications," Aelita said after a moment.

"And what's this about Jeremie banishing you?" Odd wanted to know. "Something we don't know about?"

Ulrich scratched behind his ear, not really sure how to say it. "Um, not really. Hikari-hakase offered to find my home network and I knew that Lyoko was way off the network. I kind of lied so that he wouldn't try. I didn't want him to find the Supercomputer." He looked at Rockman and smiled weakly. "Jeremie's really a nice guy. He'd have been devastated if I'd have really run off."

"You're not joking," Jeremie's voice came in. "I'm really glad to see you, Ulrich. I can transfer you to the Skid and bring you back just as soon as Yumi and Theo are done destroying the Replica."

Rockman rubbed his helmet about where his ear was. "So you're really not a monster who shouldn't be allowed near the network?" he asked.

"You can hear me too? Well, I'm not, no. I can't explain everything but I promise, Ulrich was a good friend and I'm glad to know he's alive and well."

"What's this about destroying a computer, then?" Rockman challenged. "My operator should know about this."

"Not a computer that does anything important… we hope," Aelita amended. "It's the computer that this replica of Lyoko is based on. If we do that, whatever XANA's planning to do with it won't matter."

"You can't do that!" Rockman protested. "There are a lot of Navis still on this server. If you destroy it then they'll be deleted!"

"Yumi and Theo are having a lot of trouble anyway," Jeremie noted. "There are a lot of people around and they haven't been able to find a way to destroy the computer without attracting attention. I'll call them back and we can try again another day. There aren't any monsters outside so you'll be safe for now."

"Wait, did you say Theo?" Ulrich asked. "Isn't he that kid that we played soccer with before?" He thought he remembered the kid, their age, brunette, really good at soccer. He couldn't remember any other redeeming qualities about him, though.

"Yeah. You missed a lot, Ulrich. On our way back we can hit the high points."Aelita walked out of the tower, Odd following suit. Rockman shot Ulrich an unreadable look.

"So just how much have you been lying about?" he asked, looking annoyed. Ulrich couldn't really remember.

"Honestly? That was the only big thing. Well," and he hesitated, gnawing his lip thoughtfully. "Jeremie? Since he's in the computer anyway, can I tell him the truth? About everything?"

He could hear the other muttering something under his breath. "Let me take a poll and get back to you."

A few minutes passed, during which Rockman and Ulrich stared each other down. "All right," Jeremie came back. "You can tell him everything. We can't wait long enough for the full story, though, so better make it fast."

"Then come back later," Ulrich decided. "I'll be okay on my own a few more days. You'll be able to call me when you get back?"

"Since I know where you are now it shouldn't be a problem," Jeremie confirmed. "See you in a few days, Ulrich."

"See you."

And then he somehow knew that Jeremie had closed the link. Rockman rubbed his head, shooting Ulrich an unreadable look. "Can I tell Netto-kun whatever you're about to tell me?" he asked. "If it's important I might have to tell him anyway."

"I'll get back to you on that." Ulrich wandered to the middle of the tower and sat down. "Might as well get comfortable, it's a long story."

* * *

A few hours later Ulrich had talked himself hoarse, but Rockman was nodding. "So you're really a human who was somehow transferred to a computer? And you've been fighting a program called XANA that used to be confined to your computer's network before it escaped and now it's causing trouble all over the world?"

Ulrich nodded. "That's about right. My friends that you met are human too. Well, except Aelita as far as I know. She's an AI that lived on Lyoko."

"Wrong, Ulrich," Aelita's voice came from nowhere, causing both of them to jump. "We found out after you were gone, I'm really human. Franz Hopper's my dad."

"Wait, what? But what about being linked to the Supercomputer and dying if it got shut off?" Ulrich asked.

"Fixed! I'm just like any of you guys now. I really appreciate your helping me, though. It was very considerate of you." Her voice was amused. "We just haven't shut off the supercomputer because it's the only way we can fight XANA."

"But you will be able to get me back, right?" Ulrich wanted to know. "I mean, really back?"

"Jeremie thinks so. We just have to bring you back to Lyoko and get you into a Way Tower." Aelita hummed thoughtfully. "Anyway, I've got to go. You don't want to know what time it is."

"Really early or really late, I'm guessing," Ulrich said dryly. "Good night, Aelita."

"Goodnight."

Rockman shook his head as if it hurt. "This is a lot to take in. I want to tell Netto-kun, at least, but it looks like your friends have this situation under control. I can't let them destroy a computer though. If they try that again I'll have to tell Papa."

"All right."

* * *

Ulrich got an earful about keeping Rockman to himself for so long from an aggravated Netto. Afterwards he stayed well away from the Lyoko replica, holing up on his rooftop. William didn't show up to attack him again. In fact, there was no sign of him on the network at all, something which he was very glad for. It meant that Ulrich could stay well out of sight until Jeremie contacted him again.

Rockman called him a few days later. "Ulrich, Papa wants to talk to you. He says it's important. Want to meet me in the Science Labs?"

Bored out of his mind, Ulrich nodded. "See you there."

A few minutes later he was in the lab, once again being scanned by Doctor Hikari with Netto hovering behind his dad. This time he was back in the tube he'd been in the first time, giving him a good view of the real world and everything in it. It made him a bit wistful, though he knew that given a little more time he'd be back there too.

"Ulrich, I want to ask you something and I want you to answer it honestly," Doctor Hikari began. "Were you created from human DNA?"

Ulrich stiffened, mind whirling furiously to try and come up with a possible explanation. "Why do you want to know?" he asked defensively.

Doctor Hikari shrugged. "It's a very complicated process, digitizing something from the real world. If your operator managed that then it would explain your high levels of independence. You would be a truly sentient being living on the Internet."

"How would you know how to digitize something?" Ulrich wanted to know. "Have you done it before?"

Doctor Hikari traded a look with Netto before nodding. "Yes. You see, Rockman was also created from human DNA. On a basic programming level, his data is the exact same as Netto's. They were twins, you see, and when my son died I wanted to keep him alive in some way. That's why I created Rockman."

"You mean Rockman has human DNA?" That would explain why XANA couldn't possess him normally and the Schypozoa was able to affect him. If XANA thought Rockman was human it might have mistaken him for a Lyoko Warrior.

"That's right. So you don't have to feel left out."

Ulrich chewed his lip. "Yeah," he lied. "I was created from human DNA. The real Ulrich is a friend of Jeremie's and volunteered."

"That solves that mystery then!" Doctor Hikari beamed. "Don't worry about a thing. We'll make sure to keep you safe from that evil Navi trying to kill you."

Ulrich didn't feel really safe. After he departed he stopped through Netto's home network and waited for the human to return from the Science Labs.

"Did you tell him, Rockman?" he asked once Navi and human were logged into their computer.

Rockman nodded. "Yes, I told Netto-kun everything. He knows you really were human."

"But you didn't tell your dad. Why? If you used to be human too then shouldn't you have told him?" Not that Ulrich wanted his real secret out. He was just puzzled as to why they hadn't spilled it.

Rockman shrugged. "I died when I was an infant in the real world. I don't even remember being human. It's not a big deal if he thinks you're just like me. It doesn't change how we should treat you on the net, right?"

"I suppose not."

* * *

Jeremie's voice startled Ulrich out of one of his afternoon classes, and he couldn't help his yelp when it happened. Flushing furiously he excused himself and retreated to a nearby car network.

"Jeremie? You're back?"

"We're waiting for you in the Replica. How fast can you get there?"

Ulrich looked around. "I'm a few minutes away in the next town over. Let me just pop over to Netto's class and tell Rockman goodbye."

"All right. Hurry, we don't know how long before William shows up."

"Got it."

Ulrich slipped back into class and poked Rockman in the shoulder to get his attention, then motioned for the Navi to follow him. When they were safely out of earshot Rockman asked, "They're here for you, aren't they?"

Ulrich nodded. "I'm going to try and convince them to let you come, though. If they can materialize me they might be able to materialize you! Then you'll be able to see what the real world's like."

Rockman shook his head. "I'm just a Navi, Ulrich. Besides, how would you explain my appearing all the way over in France? I'm happy the way I am. You just go on home. Try to visit sometime, k?"

Ulrich nodded. "I will. Good luck and thanks for everything."

"You too."

It didn't take Ulrich long to make it to the Replica, even without his bookmark. As soon as he entered he saw Yumi and Odd waiting for him.

"Your chariot awaits," Odd quipped. "Ready for the big plunge?"

"Haha," Ulrich deadpanned. "Let's go. I said goodbye to Rockman and he'll let everyone else know. I'm ready to finally get something to eat again." He glanced at Yumi. "Does your mom know how to make curry, by any chance?"

"I think so. Why?" Yumi asked as they started towards the ship. Ulrich thought he remembered it being called a Skid before.

"It's the only food that Netto ever talked about," Ulrich snorted. "It's his favorite thing."

"Then when we get home I'll ask mom to make some." Yumi grinned at him. "She really likes you now, you know."

"What? How can she like me if I haven't even been there?" Ulrich asked curiously.

"That's a long story. We'll tell it to you on the way back," Jeremie's voice said. "You're almost at the Skid now. Give me a moment and I'll have you all transferred."

They broke into a clearing, where the Skid was hovering next to a tower. Aelita and another person that Ulrich guessed was Theo was waiting for them at the base.

"Hey, Stern, long time no see," Theo greeted, idly balancing what looked like a soccer ball on his head. His Lyoko outfit resembled a soccer uniform, except more form-fitting and without any numbers or designs. "We've really missed you on the team."

"I'll bet. I've been practicing, don't you worry," Ulrich grinned. As they all gathered around he hesitated, drawing back a bit. "Um," he said awkwardly, suddenly uncertain. "You guys want to come see the Internet? I can show you where I've been staying and stuff." He didn't know why he was stalling. He just had a bad feeling.

The other four traded glances with each other. "Well, we don't have to be anywhere pressing anytime soon," Aelita said. "Is it okay if we leave the Replica, Jeremie?"

A few seconds of silence greeted them before Jeremie sighed. "I don't see why not. Just don't be too long."

Ulrich nodded, ginning. "All right! You guys are gonna like Internet City, it's a massive place. You might need your vehicles though, it'll take a few minutes to get there and the place I want to show you is pretty high up."

"No problem, I'm programming them now," Jeremie said. A few minutes later a purple floating skateboard, a one-wheeled motorcycle, and a circular vehicle with a handle at about waist-height appeared before them. "There you are. Be sure to give me a visual of what you see, Aelita."

"Of course, Jeremie." Aelita mounted the circular vehicle behind Yumi while Theo hopped on the motorcycle and Odd claimed the skateboard. "Lead the way, Ulrich."

Nodding, the brunette turned and sprinted ahead, back the way they'd come. His friends on their vehicles were able to catch up with him easily. He didn't hesitate when they came to the wall separating the Lyoko Replica from the rest of the network, plowing through it and racing for the link that would take him to Internet City. A direct link here had been installed shortly after the Replica had been opened to the public. Ulrich had to stop when they reached it and show his friends how to use it, but once he did they passed through without mishap and entered the city proper.

"Wow," Aelita breathed, looking around at all of the shops and Navis milling about. "This is amazing! This is really all on the network?"

"Yeap," Ulrich nodded. "Internet City's a public spot where Navis can shop and do pretty much everything their operators can. It has pretty good firewalls that can usually keep everything besides William out." He waved them onwards. "Come on, my place isn't too far from here. Better not be scared of heights!"

"Bring it on!" Odd cried gleefully, racing behind him as he began dashing up buildings. Yumi, Aelita, and Theo followed behind them at a more sedate pace.

"Well, here it is," he said awkwardly when they got to his rooftop. It was just how he'd left it, bookshelves crammed full of files and scattered on the table. His friends dismounted their vehicles and poked around.

"What, no bed?" Odd asked skeptically. "Where'd you sleep?"

"I didn't," he confessed. Everyone raised an eyebrow at him. "Well, I didn't! Navis can't sleep, right Aelita?"

"Right," the pink-haired girl nodded. "When you're a digital entity you don't need to eat or sleep. That must have been hard for you."

"I got used to it. I think it'll be weird to sleep again," Ulrich admitted. "But yeah. I also went to school, did homework, that sort of thing. I hope it was enough to stay caught up in everything."

"You'll be fine, I'm sure. Ready to go now?" Aelita asked. "Are you going to do anything about these files?"

Ulrich looked around at what had been his home, then shrugged. "Somebody'll find it one day. Wonder what they'll think of it?"

"Depends on what you have in there," Odd teased, trying to open one of the files and getting nowhere for his trouble. "Hey, what gives?"

Rolling his eyes, Ulrich reached out and opened the file for him. "It's just news reports. I was trying to keep up to date on anything that might have been related to you guys or XANA. I couldn't save anything from days that I had to repeat, though. Kind of wish I could."

"Are you guys done yet?" Jeremie asked impatiently. "It's impressive, yes, but we are on a time limit. We're lucky William hasn't shown up yet."

"Don't say that," Odd groaned, his ears lying flat against his head and his tail curled around his legs while he mock-shivered. "You'll curse us."

A few minutes later…

"Curse you, Jeremie!" Odd yelled, firing a few arrows at the viruses that had lined up to take a bite out of them just outside of Internet City. They all sported XANA's eyes, showing that they were all under the control of the evil program. "I told you you'd jinx us!"

Ulrich batted away a few arrows from a fish virus and leapt behind it, slicing it in two before it could turn around and face him. One of his clones made short work of a few Mettaurs that were trying to corner Theo. The soccer player wasn't fazed, however, his soccer ball glowing before he kicked it at another fish virus. It bounced off the virus and back to him, where he caught it on his chest and let it drop back down to his feet.

Aelita shot a few energy blasts at another fish, her aim perfect. "Let's just get back to the Replica. This must just be a diversion!"

"You're right," Jeremie said grimly. "Guess who just showed up."

They all groaned and wasted no time. Ulrich fused with his copy and nodded. "I'll go on ahead!" Ulrich said, preparing as if to leap. "Just make sure you guys don't wait too long!"

"How're you going to get past all of the monsters?" Aelita asked.

Ulrich grinned. "Watch. Area Steal!"

He phased back in well behind the ranks of the viruses, immediately sprinting in the direction of the forest Replica. "How'd you do that?" Jeremie asked. "It looks like that teleportation skill I tried to give Odd a while back, only without the bugs."

"It's a chip attack Doctor Hikari programmed in," Ulrich explained. He passed through the wall and kept going, heading for where he could now hear laser blasts. "It's called Area Steal. It's basically teleportation, yeah."

"I hope all of those modifications don't affect your materialization," Jeremie said worriedly. "We'll have to do a full check before we try."

"Gotcha. I'm near the Skid now." And he was, where he could see William and several Mantas firing at the ship. "Wish me luck."

"Don't be too reckless! You know what'll happen if you lose all your life points."

Ulrich resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "As if I could forget."

And the fight was on. Ulrich went for the Mantas first, knowing that with them there it would be that much harder for him to take on William. He didn't even know how many life points he had left.

It wasn't too hard. He caught them by surprise, leaping up onto one of them and slicing it in half before leaping to the next and then the next. All three Mantas exploded and vanished, leaving just him and William.

"Miss me?" he asked the possessed human, grinning with mirth he wasn't really feeling. "Come on, you don't want to let little old me get in your way."

Snarling, William charged at him. He blocked, arms shaking under the weight of the saber, before finding better footing and throwing the other off of him. He managed to get a lucky strike while William was off-balance before he was forced to retreat and look for another opening.

William struck out again, his giant sword whistling through the air as it tried to take off Ulrich's head. The boy swore and ducked, rolling out of the way and edging around the other.

"The cavalry's arrived!" Odd cheered, arrows impacting William on the shoulder and driving the possessed boy back. Yumi's fan whirled through the air, William dodging it by a hair. Theo's soccer ball whacked him in the head instead, and with an enraged roar the dark-haired boy vanished into black smoke.

"Good job, you guys. Let's get you in the Skid and home."

Glancing backwards one last time, Ulrich closed his eyes and let the teleporter take him.

* * *

It felt surreal. Ulrich stepped out of the scanner, feeling a bit wobbly and welcoming the supporting hand on his shoulder, and took a deep breath of real air. "Weird," he admitted, leaning against the wall and really feeling the texture of aged metal under his fingertips. "Really weird. I feel kind of naked without my sword."

"You okay?" Yumi asked, concern in her voice.

Ulrich shook his head, breathing deeply and smelling stale oil and dust. "I'll be okay. Just give me a minute."

Human lungs. A human heart, beating a rhythm it hadn't in over a year. Human ears picking up the sound of typing from above him. Human hands and arms, covered in definitely not-digital cloth.

He had to bask in the feelings for far longer than a minute. He was thwarted by his stomach growling, a sensation that startled him until he remembered what it was.

"Um, food?" he asked hopefully. "I haven't eaten in a really long time."

"We missed dinner," Odd bemoaned.

"Lucky for you," Jeremie called, poking his head down the access panel that linked the scanner room and the computer room, "I planned for this. Come on up and see what it takes to bribe a pizza guy into delivering to an abandoned factory."

Ulrich's mouth watered. "Food!"

It was heavenly. He downed two slices before anyone had even finished their first, then slowed down to savor the third slice. "I missed this," he sighed in between bites. "No, really. This is awesome."

"Are you talking about the pizza or the eating?" Odd teased.

"Both," Ulrich readily admitted, then yawned. "I guess my body clock must still be set on local time," he guessed, seeing as it was afternoon in Densan. "Just out of curiosity, how did you explain away my absence? You mentioned your parents really liking me now, Yumi."

The girl turned pink and coughed into her hand. "Well, we used a polymorphic clone of you to fool everyone. You remember those? We activated a tower and made a clone of you to take your place at school."

"Uh-huh. I'm getting a really bad feeling about this."

"Your clone decided to become some sort of braniac," Odd grinned. "Your scores have way improved, and your clone made a few friends too. He's not as much of a jerk now."

"Joy. Just what damage do I have to look forward to?" the formerly trapped human sighed.

"You'll see. For now let's get back to the dorm. It's way past curfew."Jeremie stood and stretched. "Good luck."


	4. Chapter 4

I can't apologize enough for the delay in posting this chapter. Kingdom Hearts Re:coded came out, then I was attacked by more plotbunnies, and... yeah. I'm really sorry for keeping everyone waiting. If you thought the last chapter was THE last chapter... sorry to disappoint! There is a lot more to this fic, and I promise not to procrastinate so long on posting the last few chapters.

Without further ado, on with the fic!

* * *

Ulrich thought he heard something behind him and tensed, hand curling around the comforting shape of his saber at his hip. Growling met his ears and he turned, somehow knowing that he wouldn't be able to draw his sword in time.

The shadowy figure leaped, pinning him to the sand, jaws snapping at his neck…

He woke up with a cry, shooting upright and panting heavily, sheets twisted around his midsection. Odd grumbled from the bed across from him, muttering something about chocolate and someone named Meredith. The blonde's dog, Kiwi, was curled up at his master's feet.

For his first night back from the virtual world, his first night of sleep, that wasn't a heartening dream. He wandered out into the hallway and towards the bathroom, yawning mightily. His body seemed to have stocked up on its missed sleep while he was gone and he felt like he wanted to drop right where he was.

"Oh Ulrich," a voice sing-songed and he winced. He hadn't missed that voice.

"What do you want, Sissi?" he asked testily, turning to the dark-haired girl. "You know you're not supposed be on this floor." The dorms were co-ed, but the girls and boys slept on two different floors.

"But I wanted to see you! You haven't forgotten about our date tomorrow, right?" The girl latched onto his arm and faked a swoon. "It's going to be so magical!"

Ulrich shook her off as if she'd said something vile. "No way! I must really have been out of my mind if I was dating you before. You can forget it!"

He raced away into the bathroom, slamming the door and breathing heavily. Now he knew why Jeremie had wished him luck. Dating Sissi? He felt he would have been better off on the network.

He did his business, washed his hands, and meandered back to his room. Odd was awake and looking at him curiously. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, go back to sleep." Ulrich climbed back into bed and pulled the covers up, though he didn't fall asleep again for a long time.

* * *

"It looks like even though your personality's rebounded your grades are still holding strong," the teacher noted, placing Ulrich's homework on his desk in front of him. "90%."

The teen surveyed the math homework and sighed. "Thanks, sensei."

"You've hanging around that girl Yumi too much, haven't you? I'll let that slide this time but be sure to remember my name for the next time." The teacher moved on to the next student, leaving Ulrich to bask in his success.

"How'd you get so good at math?" Odd whispered furiously from next to him. "And programming too! Man, I should spend a year in the Internet."

"It was no picnic," Ulrich whispered back. "I had to learn math so I could calculate just how much I could do and survive. Programming was because I was in the internet and had to learn some basic self-maintenance. Tr

* * *

ust me, it wasn't fun."

"Well, good job. Your parents won't suspect the difference!" Odd pumped his fist in victory.

"Della Robia! Just what is it that you have to say to Stern that you couldn't say to you class?" The teacher looked at them both harshly, arms crossed over her chest. "We're listening!"

"He was just telling me how great I did in class," Ulrich spoke up. "Sorry. It won't happen again."

"It had better not."

Ulrich let his head thunk to the desk and sighed.

The rest of his classes were no better. He flunked history in a rather spectacular fashion, though in his defense the last year had been spent learning Japanese history and not French, and science was still an abysmal subject for him. Fortunately his clone didn't seem to have much better luck in those areas, either.

All in all, he felt that he might just be able to get used to the real world again.

* * *

Two weeks later, he was regretting thinking that.

Schoolwork and XANA were threatening to grind him into paste and not spit him back out. He spent most days in an exhausted heap, just barely managing to drag himself out of bed. A few times he'd bowed out of XANA encounters in order to catch up on some much-needed sleep, something his friends both understood and were angry over. Sure they had Theo in their group now but every soldier against XANA was helpful.

After yet another day spent in a daze he flopped into bed and groaned. "I actually missed this?" he asked his pillow.

"Just think, there's another test tomorrow. And with your luck, XANA's going to want to eat you and spit you out." Odd grinned at him, dumping his books on his bed and flopping next to them. "That guy really has a grudge against you, doesn't he?"

Ulrich didn't want to answer. Instead he rolled over and put his arm over his eyes.

"Ah well. Jeremie's planning on an excursion back to Densan's Replica in the next few days. You can go see your friend Rockman again. Are you going to go see him?" Odd sat up and pulled a book towards him with a resigned sigh.

"Yeah. He'll be really happy. He knows I came home but I'll bet he's worried." Ulrich thought about the Navi and then had an idea. It was stupid and he'd probably be caught, but it was the least he could for him.

It would just have to wait until everyone else was asleep. Decided, Ulrich grabbed a set of clothes and headed for the showers.

A few hours later, Ulrich slipped out of bed and tiptoed out of the room in his sock-clad feet, sneakers in hand. Once he was down the stairs and by the doors leading to the outside he finally pulled on his shoes and slipped outside.

It didn't take him too long to get to the factory where Lyoko's computer was stored. Even less time was needed to get to Lyoko's interface. It took him a moment to boot up the computer, but once he was in he acted quickly.

He still remembered Rockman's phone number. It hadn't really been that long, after all. He waited impatiently for the Navi to pick up, tapping his fingers on the keyboard and biting his lip nervously.

"Hello?" Rockman's voice answered, sounding a bit sleepy. "I don't recognize this number, who is this?"

"You know you don't sleep, Rockman," Ulrich said playfully. "It's me, Ulrich. Let me see if I can get a video online." He tapped a few keys, still feeling his way through Lyoko's subroutines and not really interested in messing anything up. He found the webcam feed and patched it into the call, Rockman's ecstatic face appearing on his screen. "Can you see me now?"

"I can. Wow, you really are human, aren't you?" Rockman grinned. "Let me get Netto up, he'll want to see you too!"

Ulrich began tapping at the keys, searching through Lyoko's memory for the files he really wanted. "I'm actually more interested in seeing your dad. Is he up?"

"Yeah, he's getting ready for work. I'll get him." Rockman vanished for a moment before returning. "He's on his way. What is it that you want?"

"I want to do something for you guys. It's the least I can do for everything you've all done for me. I'm going to send you the data you'll need to build yourself a scanner." Ulrich kept tapping on the keys.

"Ulrich, is that you?" Doctor Hikari's voice asked, his face appearing a moment later. "Wait, you're in the real world!"

"Yeah. Rockman can explain everything. Here, I'm sending you the data," Ulrich said, hairs on the back of his neck going up. "Basically, if you can find the computer that XANA's set his replica up on, you can materialize Rockman onto the real world." He hunched his shoulders as he finished gathering the files into one package and sent it off to the blue Navi. "I'm not supposed to be sending you this," he confessed. "But… it felt wrong for me to come home and not Rockman. I'm sorry it took me so long."

Doctor Hikari examined the data, his eyebrows going up. "It's really true, then. You are a human who was on the virtual world!"

"Yeah. Listen, I'm going to be stopping by in a few days I think. That data should have everything you need to materialize Rockman, including the materialization program. If you don't want to test it on him then you can wait until I get there if you want." Ulrich ensured that all of the data was sent and relaxed just a bit. "Make sure Rockman keeps a copy of the data for the next two days. He's immune to the effects of returning to the past so if he's holding it he shouldn't lose it. Just in case."

He thought he heard the elevator and knew his time was up. "I gotta go. See you guys in a few days!"

He had just enough time to shut the computer down and pull the headset from his ear before the door opened and Odd strolled out. "I thought I heard you leave earlier," the blonde noted dryly. "Thinking about going back?"

Ulrich shook his head. "Nah, just needed to get away from your snoring," he teased. "I was just a bit nostalgic, that's all. Let's get back." Odd didn't even glance back at the computer as Ulrich boarded the elevator and pulled the lever to ascend to the first floor.

* * *

The mission to go to Densan was in fact four days after Ulrich managed to send the data to Rockman. It was a mission all five of the current Lyoko Warriors would take on, despite it being simple reconnaissance. They all reasoned that with XANA being so active around Densan they didn't want to take the chance.

Ulrich looked out at the Digital Sea, not nervous this time around about entering it. The first time he'd been understandably uncertain about the whole thing, but now he could appreciate the Sea's quiet beauty. He could see the surface shimmering above them high above, the physical manifestation of the border of the internet, while the sea represented the private servers. At least, that's how he understood it. The way Jeremie had described it involved a lot more complex words that had gone over even his head.

"We're almost at the Replica. Everyone, prepare to dock." Aelita's voice was as calm as she guided the Skid into the Replica's entrance in the Sea. Ulrich braced himself in his personal pod, expecting some kind of turbulence, but the ship didn't so much as shake as they emerged from the surface of the Sea and coasted up to a tower. "We've docked, Jeremie. You can transport us to the Replica when you're ready."

"Got it. Transport in progress."

The world blurred and when it cleared Ulrich was standing just in front of the tower. Waving his hand, he was relieved to find that his status window still appeared even though he'd been assured by Jeremie that when he lost all of his life points now, he'd be materialized just like everyone else. It looked like he would still keep those little features when he was on Lyoko, though. He thought it was a bit handy.

"I'll call Rockman and see what he's up to," he said out loud. "What're you guys going to do while I'm doing that?"

"Nothing much," Aelita shrugged. "We're going to look for the supercomputer that this Lyoko's on so we can destroy it."

Ulrich winced. "Don't tell that to Rockman." Privately he hoped that they couldn't find the supercomputer. "Anyway, I'm off to Internet City if anyone wants to come."

"I'll do it," Odd agreed, jumping up and down. "I thought I saw a soccer field there! Navis play soccer?"

"Uh-huh. Maybe we can get Rockman in on a game," Ulrich grinned. Window still open he dialed Rockman's number.

The answer was immediate. "Ulrich! I knew that you'd call eventually, I have great news! Are you in the Lyoko replica?"

"Yeah," Ulrich asked, puzzled. "Why?"

"We got it working! Hang on, I'll be right there and I can show you. Netto-kun's so excited!" Rockman's face vanished from the screen almost as soon as it had showed up, leaving Ulrich and Odd at a loss for words. Privately Ulrich thought he knew exactly what Rockman was talking about.

"What's with him? Is he usually this hyper?" Odd asked, scratching his head.

"It's probably nothing to worry about. Let's wait for him here." Ulrich settled down next to a tree and made himself comfortable. After a moment Odd followed suit, occupying himself with flicking Ulrich with his tail. After the tenth time the brunette grabbed the offending limb and glared.

"Sorry," Odd said sheepishly.

"There you guys are!" Rockman ran up, doubling over to catch his breath for a moment before righting himself and grinning. "Papa's ready to try that program now, the tower here should work for it. Still want to be the guinea pig?"

"You're sure excited," Ulrich noted. "Sure, I can make a sacrifice for science."

"What're you two talking about?" Odd wanted to know.

"I'll explain it in a minute," the brunette waved him off. He turned to enter the tower, not able to help the grin on his face.

"Ulrich, seriously," Jeremie's voice said. "What's going on?"

Ulrich ignored him, taking up a position on the inside of the tower. "Hikari-hakase? Can you hear me?"

"Yes, I can. I'll start up the procedure right now." Doctor Hikari's voice was just as excited as Rockman's, even as he tried to mask it behind cool professionalism.

"I'm ready." Ulrich spread his arms and waited for the program to activate.

"Ulrich, something weird's going on and I can't stop it! What's going on?" Jeremie's voice sounded panicked.

A few seconds later Jeremie went silent. The familiar sensation of materialization took over him, and a second later he was once again aware of the world. The steel was warm under his fingertips, the gust of air against his face a welcome sensation. It meant that the scanner was open and he wasn't trapped.

"Ulrich? Is that you?" Netto's voice was worried and he felt a hand on his shoulder. "You okay? Say something!"

"Something," he groaned, finally opening his eyes to see just where he was. He recognized Doctor Hikari's lab, though he was seeing it from a different angle this time. The weakness that accompanied materialization passed shortly and he was able to straighten and step out of the scanner. "Sorry, I'm okay."

Netto looked him over a bit too closely for comfort, poking him in various places. "Wow. You really are real! This is awesome!"

Ulrich tolerated a few pokes before he batted Netto's hands away. "All right, enough already, I'm real. Are you going to bring Rockman now?"

Rockman's face appeared on Doctor Hikari's screen, looking equal parts amused and worried. "Um, Ulrich? Your friend Jeremie really isn't happy."

"Just get into the tower and let Hikari-hakase bring you in," Ulrich advised, then turned to the older man. "Just out of curiosity, where'd you find the computer that has Lyoko's replica on it?"

Netto bounced on his heels, grinning. "We brought the computer here, it's over in that corner." He jerked a thumb over at the corner in question, where a new machine was humming away.

"All right, here goes." Doctor Hikari pushed a few buttons. "Materializing Rock… er, Saito!"

"Who?" Ulrich asked, even as the scanner hummed and the doors popped open. A form fell out and he averted his eyes. "Oh, Rockman, right? Er, did you bring him clothes?"

Netto rolled his eyes and pulled a set of clothes from under a console. "Already thought of that. Want to help?"

"He's your brother," the French teen snorted. "Not that I'm not sympathetic, but…"

"Yeah, I understand." A groan sounded from the scanner, and Netto turned his attention to Rockman. "All right, come on you, sit up so I can get a shirt on you."

Ulrich tuned him out, instead going to stand by the elder Hikari. "Er, I'm sorry for lying to you about what I was," he said awkwardly.

Doctor Hikari waved his hand dismissively. "I'm just glad that Jeremie's not really a bad guy. Plus, you managed to give me a gift that I could never have had otherwise. That more than makes up for it."

Ulrich grinned. "Well, my friends are going to be ticked at me," he winced.

"No kidding," Yumi's voice said dryly. They all whirled around to see Yumi and Theo standing behind them in all of their Lyoko glory. "What on Earth were you thinking?"

Ulrich puffed up indignantly. "They helped me and I wanted to help them! So what?"

"We have to destroy this supercomputer and you just made it harder," Yumi growled. "You know that as long as a Lyoko Replica exists XANA will be able to continue affecting the real world."

"It's not like we're defenseless," Netto put in. "I've saved the world what, six times? You can leave XANA to me and Rockman. We can take care of it no problem."

"That's not the point! Ugh," Yumi said in disgust. "I need some air." She stomped out, Theo looking back and forth between Ulrich and her before shrugging and following.

As if on cue Ulrich's cell phone rang. He pulled it out, vaguely surprised that it still worked, and held it at arm's length. "I'm about to get lectured," he sighed before biting the bullet and picking up.

"Ulrich! Tell me, exactly how long has Rockman had the scanner data?" Jeremie's voice was cold and angry.

"Too long for a Return to the Past. What's your problem, anyway?" he asked, suddenly annoyed. "Rockman's just like Aelita used to be! You did everything you could to materialize her before. What's the difference?"

"The difference is that Rockman's not going to stay materialized, is he?" Jeremie pointed out. "He's a Navi, he's going to want to go back and forth. For that he'll need the Lyoko Replica, which means that even if we managed to destroy every other Replica on the net, XANA will still have someplace to hide. What if he activates a tower, huh?"

"Ulrich, may I have your phone?"

The teen in question turned around, surprised. Rockman looked like he'd recovered and was fully dressed in blue jeans, a light blue t-shirt, and a blue hoodie. Netto was in the process of lacing up his sneakers but otherwise the materialized Navi was alert and aware.

"I'm actually surprised that it works here," Doctor Hikari noted. "Is Jeremie bouncing the signal off of satellites to contact you?"

"Dunno, but the Supercomputer's amazing with this stuff." Ulrich handed his phone over, noting that Rockman's hair on Earth was brown just like Netto's, though his eyes were still a vibrant green contrasting with Netto's brown. That would make it easy to tell them apart.

Rockman put the phone to his ear. "Jeremie?" He paused. "Yes, this is Rockman. Ulrich managed to send me a bit more data than he thought. With Papa's help we were able to crack Lyoko's security, what you would call the Keys to Lyoko. They've been installed into my mainframe so you see, Aelita isn't the only one who can deactivate towers anymore."

Ulrich heard an explosion of noise from the phone and Rockman winced, pulling away from his ear. "Is he usually this loud?" he asked the French teen.

"Only when he's mad. Let me have him back." Ulrich reclaimed his phone and left Netto to help Rockman stand up and get used to being flesh and blood. "Einstein?"

"Did you know about the Keys to Lyoko?"

"No," Ulrich said honestly. "I thought that all I sent them was the schematics for the scanners and the Code: Earth program. They're really good with computers so they were probably able to use that to get into the tower's systems."

"That's right," Rockman nodded, kicking the tips of his shoes against the ground a few times before taking a few steps under Netto's watchful gaze. "Once we had that program, we were able to reverse-engineer a lot of the code making up Lyoko. It's not Ulrich's fault." His steps were steady, though he held his arms out just a bit farther from his body than could be explained away easily. His shoes scuffed against the floor the first few steps until the Navi got used to their weight.

Ulrich repeated that into the phone.

"We can't stay in the Replica forever," Jeremie said tightly. "If you're coming back, come on then. If you want to stay with your new best friends for a few days that's fine with me. We'll call you when we've come back so you can virtualize and come home."

Ulrich glanced at the Hikaris, wondering what to do. "What do you guys think?" he asked. "Should I stay for a few days or head back?"

"I'd be happy to put you up for a few days," Doctor Hikari grinned. "We might need someone who's had experience on our side to help us get used to this."

Ulrich nodded. "I'll stay here then. Say I'm vising a friend overseas, that'll be the truth."

"All right. Later then."

The line clicked and went do the dial tone. Sighing, Ulrich pocketed the device and turned to watch Netto and Rockman. Rockman seemed to have mastered walking and was now exploring the room interestedly, asking Netto all sorts of questions about various things. Ulrich expected that those questions had something to do with touch and sound; he remembered how hypersensitive his sense of touch had been those first few days back in the real world.

"Hey, Hikari-hakase," the French teen began, "what'd you call Rockman when you were materializing him?"

Rockman grinned. "He called my human name. I was Saito Hikari before I was Rockman."

"So what, should I keep calling you Rockman or should I go for Saito?" Ulrich asked teasingly.

"Either one is okay I guess." The Navi, having touched everything in the room and seeming to be used to moving around, spun around once, then did a backbreaking stretch before righting himself and nodding. "All right, I think I'm good to go. Where to?"

"Well, if you're going to be staying in the real world then we'll have a lot of fast talking to do," Doctor Hikari mused. "We'll have to concoct a story to explain how you survived as a child, then get you enrolled into school. You both will have to have normal Navis for the classes…"

"While you're contemplating that, can I take him home?" Netto asked. "Mama's going to be so thrilled when she hears that it worked!"

"Of course, Netto, but be sure to take it easy on him. It's his first day in the real world, after all."

"Yes, Papa." Netto and Rockman spoke at once, then looked at each other and started laughing. Ulrich grinned at them.

"Oh, Ulrich, before I forgot, here." Netto pulled a familiar object out of his pocket and handed it to Ulrich. The other teen took it, raising an eyebrow.

"That PET you wanted to put me into? What's this for?"

"Your cell phone shouldn't work around here, so this'll let us contact you. There's a basic Navi in there now," Rockman explained. "Once we knew that you were human we realized why you didn't want to become a Navi."

Ulrich looked at the screen, where the face of an average Navi looked back at him. "I see." Shrugging, he pocketed the device and gestured for the terrible twins to precede him. "Well, lead the way, natives. "

* * *

Rockman didn't seem to know where he should look first. "What's that?" he asked curiously, lifting his nose and sniffing. "It's so strange… Is this what smelling something is?"

Netto imitated him, face breaking out into a grin. "Yeah! Someone's making curry somewhere. Oh yeah, I'll call Mama and have her make some," he said absently. "You have to try it! I know you've seen me eat it before, but it's not the same as actually having some!"

"I tried to get Yumi's mom to make some," Ulrich chuckled. "She tried, but well… I can't wait to get some of your mom's." He was looking around too, at all the buildings he'd only seen from the internet before.

The Navi nodded, turning his face up into the sunlight. "And it's so warm! Is that the wind I'm feeling right now?" A small breeze had picked up and was tossing all of their hair and clothes around.

"Yeap," Ulrich agreed. "There's so much on the internet that just can't be programmed in. Like the wind, and smells, and tastes. And sleeping, you'll probably like it," he added, scratching his chin thoughtfully. "You know how much torture it is to want to sleep and know you can't?"

Netto winced. "That sounds bad."

"Yeah. But we're here now! Let's just work on keeping Rockman out of trouble until he learns what he needs to about the real world," Ulrich said cheerfully.

"I'm not a child," Rockman said sullenly. "I know everything that humans should know, I've had to keep Netto-kun out of trouble before." He jabbed his hands in his pockets and sulked.

His brother patted him on the shoulder. "I know that, Rockman. But knowing from the internet isn't the same as actually being here and having to do it. There are some things that you can only get through experience and I don't want you to get hurt."

"There was a lot I had to get used to again," Ulrich agreed. "Eating, for one. I had gotten so used to not eating that you don't want to know how many meals I skipped. After those first few days one of my friends had to actually come and remind me to eat every single meal." He'd gotten back into that schedule, though, and his escorts had lessened considerably. Not to mention, he actually recognized when he was hungry again.

Rockman nodded. "I see. Then I'll be careful." He stopped at a tree and stood a few moments, fingers tracing the rough bark. A leaf fell on his head while he did so, Netto stifling a snicker behind his hand.

"This is just… wow," Rockman said at last, turning away from the tree and examining the grit still on his fingers.

Netto punched his shoulder playfully. "There's plenty of time for that, so come on! Mama's waiting at home for us and it does take a few minutes to get there, remember?"

"Yes, Netto-kun." Rockman wiped his hand on his jeans and examined his fingers as they started moving again.

Ulrich watched the two interact with a small smile. Rockman's entrance to the real world reminding him of Aelita's, though the Navi was if possible even more naïve than she had been. Aelita, having once been human, had still known subconsciously of all the dangers in the human world. Rockman was having to start from only theoretical knowledge and scratch.

"Netto!" a voice called, and all three brunettes turned to look at the source. It was a girl about Netto's age, deep pink hair restrained by a hair clip and wearing what looked like a pink day dress. Ulrich recognized her from when he'd been on the Internet; the girl was one of Netto's childhood friends and her Navi constantly clung onto Rockman.

"Hey, Meiru!" Netto returned, waving his hand enthusiastically. Then he froze, eyes widening. "Um, guys, she doesn't know about the whole Lyoko mess," he said in an undertone. "So… um, help?"

Ulrich rolled his eyes at him while Rockman stifled a snicker behind his hand. "If you have any money I'll duck into one of the shops with Rockman," he offered. "You can come get us when you're done."

Netto pressed Rockman's PET into the Navi's hand and nodded. "Go on, then!"'

The two of them ducked into a shop at random, relieved when they emerged into what looked like a candy shop instead of something too girly for Ulrich's taste. Rockman was already at the counter, eyeing all of the treats interestedly.

"Let's not start you off on a bad note," Ulrich said dryly, plucking some candied fruits from a display and setting them on the counter. "At least these probably still have some vitamins in them."

The shopkeeper rang them up and Rockman fumbled with the PET for a few minutes before he figured out how to transfer the funds stored in it to the shopkeeper. Once they went to wait by the door with their purchase Ulrich raised an eyebrow at the Navi.

For his part Rockman flushed. "What? Things are much different on the outside of the PET. On the inside all I had to do was wave a hand and the money was transferred."

Ulrich knew that all too well, but he couldn't help his amused snicker. "Still, that's a funny thought. A Navi not able to work a PET!"

Rockman scowled and punched him in the shoulder, though not hard enough to do real damage. He hit in the wrong spot and hissed in pain, rubbing his knuckle with his other hand. "Ouch!"

Ulrich rubbed his smarting shoulder. "You must have hit the bone. You okay?"

The Navi shook out his hand after a moment, looking bemused. "That's… pain, then?"

"One kind," the French teen sighed. "There's burning pain, aching pain, sharp pain, dull pain, freezing pain… If you're lucky you won't experience any more than a few of those, though."

Rockman frowned. "A few of those?"

Ulrich shrugged. "Accidents happen. People trip, bump into things, that sort of thing. Most of the time it's not really a big deal." He then grinned. "Papercuts are the worst, though."

Rockman made like he wanted to whap him upside the head before reconsidering and sighing. "I wonder what's taking Netto-kun so long," he said instead.

As if on cue the boy in question popped up on the other side of the glass, grinning madly. Ulrich and Rockman traded a look before exiting the shop.

Netto eyed the bag of sweets in their hand with a raised eyebrow. "Ulrich, you're not planning on getting my brother dessert before we even get home, are you?"

"He said there're probably still vitamins in here," Rockman said defensively, but he surrendered the package to Netto anyway.

The rest of the trip to Akihara was uneventful. Ulrich had his first trip on the train and enjoyed it, wondering if Yumi had ever ridden one as well. It was over far too soon and he departed behind the Hikari twins a bit wistfully.

"We're almost home," Netto said, pointing down the street from the train station. "See that blue house over there? That's mine. Mama's home… I forgot to call her!" He whapped his own forehead lightly. "We'll have to wait to eat, then. Is that okay with you guys?"

Ulrich and Rockman both nodded. In companionable silence they traversed the short distance to Netto's home, the brunette in question yelling "I'm home!" as soon as he crossed the threshold. Ulrich remembered to kick off his shoes and Netto showed him where to keep them before turning to Rockman and showing the Navi how to undo the laces. With that taken care of the three advanced into the house proper.

"Welcome home, Netto-kun, Rockman," the dark-haired woman in a green skirt and dark shirt greeted warmly. She was standing in front of the stove, stirring pots that were simmering away happily. The kitchen, Ulrich noticed with surprise, was opened onto the living room. It was sparsely decorated but still had a lived-in feel to it, a couch against the wall and one facing the TV. "And welcome to our home, Ulrich-kun. Papa called me just as soon as you guys left the Science Labs. If you want to go upstairs until dinner's ready I'll be happy to let you know when it's done."

"Thanks, Mama." Netto gave his mother a hug and nudged Rockman forwards too. Dragging Ulrich towards the stairs the French teen could see right by the TV, he exited the room quickly.

Ulrich thought he understood why they were beating a hasty retreat. Mrs. Hikari was probably going to fawn all over her materialized son and he was secretly glad for the escape.

"We'll probably see him again in a few minutes," Netto noted dryly as they ascended the stairs onto a short hall. The stairs exited at about the middle and there were two doors to the left and two to the right. "My door's all the way at the left," Netto said, pointing to the one indicated. "This one next to it's the bathroom, the one next to that is the closet, and the one all the way to the end is Mama and Papa's room."

Ulrich nodded. "Rockman's going to be in your room, right?"

"Right, but it's big enough for you too, if you want. I have a few sleeping bags I can drag out and I don't know if you want to sleep on the couch." Netto shrugged as the opened the door to his room and ushered Ulrich in. It was a surprisingly tidy room, only a few books and battle chips scattered in the corners. Netto's bed was in the corner by the bed, a half-opened closet facing it and showing signs of having been rummaged through. Next to the closet was a computer desk, unlit monitor and PET docking station on it.

Netto went to the closet and shoved clothes aside until he located two rolled-up sleeping bags. "You don't have a change of clothes, right?" he mused before diving back into the depths of his closet. "It looks like we might be the same size, hold on…"

Ulrich leaned against the wall while Netto dug around, listening to the sounds of the unfamiliar house. It was weird to think that just a few hours earlier he'd been in France and now he was in Japan. But here he was, and still speaking Japanese like a native. It looked that that translation program still worked even when he was materialized.

A few minutes later Netto had found a pair of jeans for Ulrich, as well as a dark green t shirt and a brown open-front shirt to go over it. "Here," the Japanese brunette said, offering the bundle to Ulrich. "Mama will wash your clothes for you, but you can wear this tomorrow. I have some shorts you can sleep in too."

"Thanks." Ulrich folded the clothes neatly and put them by the sleeping bag Netto was unrolling for him. Behind them, the door opened and Rockman walked in, looking a little dazed. His hair was a bit messed up and there were suspicious red marks all over his forehead.

Netto snickered. "You should look in a mirror! The look on your face!"

The Navi shook his head and shot a tolerating look at his brother. "Mama said that dinner's ready," he reported. "Ulrich, can you eat with chopsticks or do you need a fork?"

"Probably a fork," the French teen said quickly. "Definitely a fork."


	5. Chapter 5

Now for the final chapter! Another bit of anime seems to have snuck in though... but honestly, those hologram PETs are cool enough to get away with it, right?

* * *

"That was so good!" Ulrich groaned, dropping his fork to the plate and rubbing his overstuffed stomach. Across from him Netto was in a similar state, while next to his brother Rockman was polishing off another bowl of rice. The Navi had taken one bite of Mrs. Hikari's famous curry and made such a comical face that the other three at the table had cracked up laughing. After that he'd stuck safely to the steamed rice and vegetables that Mrs. Hikari had made alongside the curry.

"Mama's curry is the best," Netto agreed. "What did you think of it, Rockman?"

"It was spicy," the Navi noted a bit hesitantly. "It was too strong, I think. The rice and vegetables were tasty though."

Ulrich chuckled. "This is his first time ever eating, give him a break. We should have started with something easier on the taste buds, huh?"

Mrs. Hikari looked a bit embarrassed. "I hadn't even thought of that. I'm so sorry, Rockman. I can make something else for you if you want."

"It's okay, Mama, it was really good," Rockman quickly assured her. Right after that he yawned, something that seemed to take him by surprise.

"It's getting late, Mama, so we're going to go to bed." Netto stood, gathered his and Rockman's dishes, and dropped them in the sink. Ulrich followed suit, then followed the boys upstairs. Getting ready for bed was done with little fanfare.

A few hours later Netto and Rockman were snoring softly while Ulrich was still wide awake. His body was still a few hours behind and he wasn't tired in the slightest.

Sighing, he got up and woke Netto long enough to get the password for his computer. The Japanese teen was asleep again within minutes and Ulrich doubted he'd even remember waking up when morning came. Logged on, it didn't take him too long to load up a chat. There was an earpiece lying around that Ulrich commandeered for himself and soon he was connected.

"Jeremie?" he asked softly. "You there?"

A moment of silence greeted him before he heard rustling. "Yeah, I'm here. What do you want?" Jeremie's voice was still a bit chilly but it wasn't downright hostile. Ulrich was grateful that the computer's speakers were off so the only sound came through to his ear.

"I just wanted to plead my case. I'm sorry I kept it a secret, I should have asked you guys first. But really, what could it hurt to have help?" Ulrich made sure to keep his voice down. He knew Netto slept like a rock but he wasn't sure about Rockman.

"Did you even think this through? Let me break it down for you: if we can't destroy that Replica, we can never defeat XANA. That means that we'll all still be in danger." There was some rustling before Jeremie spoke again. "Plus, Rockman's just one Navi. What can he do all alone over there when you come back home?"

"Well, we did come up with a wicked way to travel," Ulrich admitted. "I mean, I'm in Japan! This is so cool! We should get Yumi to come here too, Mrs. Hikari makes some awesome curry."

"We're getting off topic here. What if Rockman gets deleted? What if XANA takes over Netto, or Doctor Hikari, or anyone who could do some real damage? It's just not safe."

Ulrich heard a sleeping bag rustle before Rockman was leaning against the desk next to him, rubbing his eyes sleepily. "Ulrich? What's going on?"

"I couldn't sleep so I called home," Ulrich replied, turning on the speakers and setting the volume low so Rockman could hear Jeremie too. "We're talking about what to do now that you're in the real world and we can't destroy the XANA replica. It's dangerous now that you're making yourself a threat to XANA. It might go after your friends and family. It might be best to destroy the scanner and shut down your computer now that you're here," he admitted.

"We'll figure that out soon enough," Rockman said. "For now, you're here and can help us, right? And when you leave I won't be alone. I'm the only one that can come to the real world but on the Net I have Roll and Gutsman and Blues to help me. It'll be all right, Jeremie, you'll see."

"And how will you protect Netto? What happens if something happens that needs a Return to the Past?" Jeremie pointed out.

"Then we'll call you," Rockman said. "Our computer can't launch that program, that's true, but if we asked for one you'd do it, right?"

There was a rustle from Jeremie's end and Ulrich could imagine the blonde tech scratching behind his head. "Well, that's true, but what about Netto? XANA could launch an attack and target him. Plus, he's vulnerable to XANA's possession right now. It's just not safe."

"If we scanned Netto into the computer he'd be safe," Ulrich mused. "And Doctor Hikari. If we scan them both into the computer then not only will they both be safe from XANA, but they'll be immune to the returns in time."

Jeremie sighed. "I'll take a vote and see. I'm beginning to see your point but if everyone else votes to destroy the Replica then there won't be much I can do. There's still the problem that XANA will exist so long as that Replica does."

Rockman scratched his head, then yawned loudly. "Um, can this wait until morning? This sleeping thing is strange but it looks like I still need some."

"Yeah, it's late over there. Get some sleep and I'll call you in the morning," Jeremie agreed. "I'll let you know what the others say then, too."

"Goodnight, Jeremie." Ulrich closed the chat and shut the computer down. He was finally feeling tired enough to sleep.

Rockman burrowed back under the covers with a contented sigh. "Night, Ulrich."

"Goodnight."

* * *

"The vote's been postponed," Jeremie's voice came over Ulrich's cell phone. Back at the Science Labs, Netto, Rockman, Ulrich, and Doctor Hikari were seated around the device listening intently.

"What's wrong?" Ulrich asked worriedly.

"Nothing really," Aelita assured. "Jeremie told us about the call last night and we see your point. Until we can free William and destroy the Replicas it won't matter much anyway."

"Right! And come on, a Navi in the real world? That's so cool!" Odd cheered. "I want to visit next, that has to be awesome. How's Japan, Ulrich?"

"I think Yumi would really like it," the brunette in question admitted. "Mrs. Hikari's really nice."

"And I think I can get our Replica out of XANA's hands," Doctor Hikari mused, his French accented but passable. "I've already reverse engineered a lot of the code. I just need to change the encryption and strengthen the antivirus protocols. If I make it so XANA can't get in, there should be no problem keeping the Replica, right?"

"Right," Jeremie nodded. "If you can manage that then the Replica won't be providing XANA with any power. If you do that, though, then the configuration of the Keys of Lyoko are going to change."

"That's the idea," Doctor Hikari nodded. "XANA has so much power because of those keys. If we render them invalid, then once we change the firewall it shouldn't be able to access the system."

"Right. It also means that Aelita won't be able to deactivate any of your towers." Jeremie was thoughtful. "If you give Rockman those keys instead, then he'll be the only one with power over your Replica."

"That's a bit crazy," Yumi's voice cut in. "That would mean that your Replica wouldn't be Lyoko anymore. It'd be an entirely different system."

"And there wouldn't be any harm in keeping it," Theo added. "I'm all for it."

"What're you all saying?" Netto muttered under his breath. "Not all of us speak French you know."

Rockman sidled over and whispered in his ear.

"Then it's settled. Ulrich, I can explain away your absence for the next few days, I'll call you when we're ready to come get you," Jeremie said. "Just be careful over there. Doctor Hikari, I would recommend scanning both yourself and Netto into the Internet at least once. That'll protect you from possession by XANA."

"All right. We'll take care of things on this end, don't worry about it. I'll call you if we run into trouble." Doctor Hikari pressed a few buttons on his keyboard. "Incidentally, if you could transfer the schematics for your Skidbladnir, I could work on designing a vehicle of my own for Rockman to traverse the Digital Sea. That way we could provide backup for you as well."

Jeremie seemed to hesitate for a moment. "All right," he said at last. "Transferring the data now."

"See you later, Jeremie." Ulrich reclaimed his phone and poised his finger over the "end" button.

"Later, Ulrich." "Bye Ulrich!" "Bring me some sushi!" "Bye."

Shaking his head with a chuckle Ulrich ended the call.

"All right, data received. I'll get to work on our vehicle right away. Until then, let's do what Jeremie suggested. Rockman, ready to go back to the Internet? It'll be up to you to protect Netto while he's there."

"Yes, Papa." Rockman didn't hesitate in stepping into the tall cylindrical shape of the scanner, the doors sliding shut around him. Ulrich noticed one big design difference between Doctor Hikari's scanner and the ones under the factory in France.

"Um, there's only one scanner," he noted. "Will that be a problem?"

Doctor Hikari shook his head. "If Rockman loses all his hit points then he'll be transported back to his PET, whereas Netto will be devirtualized. I'm not so sure about you, though. If you lose all of your hit points I'm not sure if you'll end up back in France or here. I don't think you'll be deleted for good, though."

"If it's France then it's not so bad," Ulrich shrugged. "Same with here. But what if me and Netto get devirtualized at the same time?"

Doctor Hikari paused, thinking. "Anyway, Rockman's on the Net now." The scanner doors slid open, empty once again. "Netto, you're next."

Netto nodded and stepped into the scanner.

* * *

Ulrich groaned, falling out of the scanner as the doors opened. "William isn't happy with us," he quipped weakly.

Doctor Hikari was there to help him up and out of the way. "Rockman's handling him on the Internet. You feeling okay?"

"Like I just got stomped on by a steamroller," Ulrich grinned, sitting against the wall gratefully. "And what about Netto?"

"He's holding his own," Doctor Hikari reported. "He won't tell me what he looks like, though. Is it that bad?"

Ulrich shook his head. "It's actually kind of cool. I think Rockman's jealous."

The scanner whirred and the doors opened, Netto toppling out with a moan. Ulrich was quick enough to catch him before he hit the ground, supporting the other brunette until he'd recovered from the forced devirtualization.

"That wasn't what I thought it'd be," Netto said at last, pushing himself upright with a wince. "I think I'll stick to operating, thanks."

"Aw, but you were so cool, Netto-kun," Rockman's voice teased, though he sounded a bit out of breath. "If both of you are okay I'm going to return to the PET. I'll come back later for the materialization."

"That might be best, Rockman. Plug out!" Doctor Hikari pushed a button on Rockman's PET and the Navi himself appeared in as a hologram on the older man's shoulder. "And it looks like William's retreating for right now. Good job you guys."

Rockman rubbed the back of his head. "It wasn't so hard. I can't wait to get back to the real world, though."

Doctor Hikari scanned himself a few hours later, when Rockman was back in the forest waiting for him. Not very much time was spent there, just enough time to destroy a few monsters before Ulrich brought both of them back in.

"It looks like we're good," Doctor Hikari nodded, checking all of the data. "According to Jeremie, XANA can't take control of either of us in the event of an attack now that we've been to Lyoko. He sent me the program to scan for activated towers too. There's no need to worry."

Rockman was in the process of watching Netto tie his shoelaces and attempting to imitate him with the other foot. "I shouldn't go very far from the lab," he said thoughtfully. "If Aelita can't get from France very quickly then I have to be nearby in order to stop XANA's attack."

Doctor Hikari nodded. "I agree. I'll call Mama and ask her to make some lunches for us. There are some bunks in a spare office that the researchers use. I'm sure they won't mind lending them to you, too."

The three brunette teens nodded.

"I'll work on the security protocols for the Replica. If we can get it under our control then we won't have to worry about a XANA attack," the Doctor continued. "That would leave Rockman free to come and go as he pleases."

"I wouldn't mind that!" the Navi cheered. "Want me to help, Papa?"

The elder Hikari waved him away. "Go spend time with your brother, Rockman. I'll get Ulrich to help me instead."

* * *

Hoping for XANA to ignore his new opponents, Ulrich found that very evening, was too much to hope for. He, Netto, and Rockman were hanging out in Doctor Hikari's lab playing the game system Mrs. Hikari brought for the three of them when Netto's PET rang.

"There's an activated tower on the Replica," Doctor Hikari's voice reported. "William is there as well. I've tried to contact Jeremie but there was no answer."

A quick glance at his wristwatch, which was still set to French time, told Ulrich why. "He's still in class. We're on our way."

Netto and Rockman were up before he'd finished speaking, racing out of the room. Ulrich volunteered to be virtualized first, arriving on the Replica very close to the activated tower. He'd hardly touched the ground before lasers were firing at him and he was forced to dodge. Saber drawn, he settled into the familiar pattern of deflecting the bolts.

"There's no sign of William," he reported. "Hikari-hakase, can you get a fix on his position?"

Rockman landed on the ground next to him lightly, buster out and firing. After a moment he spun around, crying "Aqua Tower!" before slapping his hand against the ground. From where his hand impacted a tower of water erupted, zooming towards the monsters. Those few that didn't dodge were swept over the side.

"William appears to be in the tower. Be careful, Rockman."

Ulrich leapt forward, destroying a monster with ridiculous ease before racing back to cover the blue Navi. "How can we get him out?"

There was silence, during which Ulrich and Rockman cleared out the rest of the monsters. "Netto? How's everything going over there?"

Silence again.

"XANA must have launched its attack on the Science Labs. We're on our own," Rockman guessed. "Let's both go into the tower. Maybe you can distract him long enough for me to deactivate it."

Ulrich nodded.

William was waiting for them, sword slicing the area where Ulrich's head would have been had the brunette not rolled into the tower instead of walking. Ulrich thrust with his drawn saber and was rewarded with the dark-haired teen roaring in pain.

"Now, Rockman!" Ulrich yelled, taking advantage of William's distraction and whirling a kick into the other boy's midsection. The possessed teen lost his balance and toppled into the darkness that was the tower's innards.

Not one second later Rockman was in the tower, skidding to a stop in the center and letting the invisible force lift him to the upper platform.

"All done!" the Navi called while Ulrich watched all of the myriad windows coating the inner walls of the tower fade away. "Papa, the tower's deactivated. Are you okay?"

There was still no answer. Ulrich used Area Steal to join Rockman on the upper platform, trading a worried glance with the Navi.

"I should see what's going on," the brunette said. "But without Hikari-hakase to devirtualize us, there's only one other way."

"What's that?" Rockman asked curiously.

Ulrich winced. "You'll have to devirtualize me."

The Navi looked suitably horrified. "What? Why?"

"That's the only other way back to the real world. I'll be fine, honest." Ulrich grinned at him. "Just make it quick."

"I don't know about this," Rockman said uncertainly, hand changing to his 'buster. He took careful aim. "You're sure?"

Ulrich nodded and closed his eyes.

He was winded when he fell out of the scanner, clutching his midsection with a soundless groan. It took a worrying minute for him to convince his lungs to start working again, but once he was able to breathe it wasn't long before he dragged himself out of the scanner.

"Hikari-hakase!" he called, glancing around and not seeing the older man. "Netto! You guys okay?"

There was a thud from outside the door. Curious, the brunette walked over to it, finding that it was jammed shut after an unsuccessful attempt to open it. "Netto! Is that you out there?"

"Ulrich!" Netto sounded relieved. "XANA electrified the whole room, we had to get out. Is it over?"

"Yeah. Rockman's really worried, though, you might want to get back in here." Ulrich found himself suddenly able to open the door, looking out at a slightly singed but otherwise okay father and son.

* * *

Ulrich materialized in the Factory's scanner with a groan, pitching forward and into the waiting arms of someone that deep down he hoped was Yumi. "I'm beginning to hate this," he moaned, regaining his footing after a moment and opening his eyes. As he'd hoped Yumi was right in front of him and he couldn't quite help his blush before he pulled away with a cough. "Er, thanks Yumi. You guys still aren't mad at me about the Forest Replica, are you?"

"We are, but we understand why you did it," she said. "Rockman helped you when you were on the network and you wanted to repay the favor."

Ulrich sighed in relief. "Thanks. Rockman's really happy to be in the real world, you know. He and Netto had their first sibling fight while I was there."

Yumi giggled. "You made it back in time for dinner. It's beef stroganoff!"

Ulrich groaned. "I miss Mrs. Hikari's curry already."

And like that time passed. It wasn't a boring sort of time, Ulrich once again swept up into the routine of XANA attacks and going to destroy some of XANA's Replicas. Rockman sent them nightly status reports and conferred with Jeremie on points he wasn't so sure about, slowly but steadily working to free his Replica from XANA's control. Aelita, in her spare time, had decided to try and change the security codes of Lyoko too. If they couldn't stop XANA yet, she reasoned, they could at least keep it from using Lyoko to attack the real world.

Ulrich thought that maybe this stuff was getting too complicated for him. First there were two different Lyokos trying to separate themselves from XANA, then there was William still possessed by XANA, and his polymorphic clone was making life at school all sorts of interesting. All of this was on top of infrequent trips back to Japan to help Rockman when the need called for it.

Sometimes he missed being trapped on the Internet, he thought as he faceplanted into bed at the end of his very long days. There was no chance of dying of exhaustion back then.

* * *

"William's in the real world!" was the first thing Ulrich heard when he ran into the Science Labs, Yumi and Odd on his tail. The two had decided to join him on his now-regular visit to Densan, which was looking like a good stroke of fortune.

"What? How?" the brunette demanded as the three of them crowded around the one scanner. "Where is he now?"

"He's still in the lower levels, Rockman's in the security system and is managing to slow him down. You three should get to Lyoko and back him up. Ulrich, you remember enough about our systems to swap with Rockman, right?" Doctor Hikari was at the keyboard typing furiously, Netto next to him. The younger Hikari was staring intently at the PET's holographic display, upon which Rockman was defending himself against a few minor viruses.

Ulrich nodded. "Leave it to me!"

He was the first into the scanner, materializing on Lyoko with little fanfare. "You're near the exit to the Internet," Doctor Hikari reported. "Get to the Science Labs as fast as you can."

A vehicle materialized next to Ulrich as the doctor spoke, though it wasn't the one Ulrich was expecting. "You sent me the Overboard!" the brunette reported, eyeing the purple floating skateboard.

"Sorry, my mistake. I'll send you the Overbike."

Ulrich hopped onto the skateboard with a shrug. "There's no time! Tell Odd sorry for me, though."

On the Overboard it took half the time to get through Internet City, since he could simply fly over the heads of the crowds of Navis. Once he reached the Science Lab's public access he didn't waste any time. It was easy to find Rockman on the network; he just followed the sounds of the Rockbuster and the Navi's cries of challenge.

"Tag!" Ulrich yelled, saber out and decapitating a few hapless viruses. He hopped off the Overboard and next to Rockman. "Hope you can skateboard, Rockman!"

"I'll figure it out!" the Navi grinned, folding his 'buster away and hopping on the board. "Be careful!"

Ulrich cleared out the viruses and turned his attention to the security system, where he could see William charging through police officers and innocent bystanders like crazy. Luckily they had enough sense to run away, and once the room was cleared of everyone but William Ulrich activated the security programs and sealed him inside.

"Ulrich, when I tell you to, unseal the door," Doctor Hikari warned. "Jeremie just sent me the program to translate Odd and Yumi into the real world."

"All right." All Ulrich could do now was wait.

"Ulrich!" a familiar voice yelled. The brunette turned to see a pink Navi with golden loops hanging from her helmet running up to him. "Rockman sent me to help you. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Roll," Ulrich said, recognizing the Navi as belonging to Meiru. "You should go help Rockman instead."

Roll busied herself with applying healing programs to Ulrich. "He's in that forest with a soccer-playing Navi. I was just worried about you, since you're independent and all." Netto and Rockman had made up some excuse for the reason that Ulrich kept vanishing from the 'net. So far as the rest of their friends were concerned, Ulrich was still just an independent Navi. They were quite interested in the human him, though; it was only a matter of time before the full story was out.

"I'm fine." Ulrich was grateful for the healing though.

"All right, Ulrich, open the door now!"

The brunette did as Doctor Hikari instructed and watched the ensuing battle on the screen. After a moment William's figure flickered and vanished.

"Tower deactivated," Jeremie's voice proclaimed. "Sorry I'm late, I was at the school. Need a return to the past?"

"What about that data we collected from the tower?" Doctor Hikari's voice asked. He sounded incredibly worried, though about what was a mystery.

"It'll still be in the supercomputer." Jeremie's voice had that distracted quality that Ulrich knew meant the blonde was either studying some code or looking at Aelita.

"Then yes, a return to the past would be nice."

* * *

The data that the good Doctor mentioned, Ulrich found out after gathering at the factory with his friends the next (previous) day, was the data needed to materialize William.

"It turns out that his data is being stored on a Replica in Siberia," Jeremie reported, the rest of the so-called Lyoko Warriors gathered around him and the supercomputer's monitor. On the screen, Rockman and Netto were sharing twin looks of confusion.

"Isn't that the place you guys went to last week?" Ulrich asked. He'd been catching up on some much-needed homework and hadn't gone with them.

"Right. Thanks to the data, I've devised a program that can materialize William and free him from XANA's control. It'll require pinpoint timing, though."

"What do you mean?" Rockman asked.

"Well, the program will need to be run from Siberia's supercomputer at the same instant that we devirtualize William," Jeremie explained. "I'll send you the coordinates for the Replica, think you'll be able to make it? We can use all the help we can get."

"Sure, I can come." Doctor Hikari had put the finishing touches on his own vehicle to traverse the Digital Sea just a few days before. "Just let me and Netto know when."

* * *

Ulrich deflected a laser blast from a Hornet that had decided to take a potshot at him, backing up until he met Odd coming from the other side. They glanced over their shoulders at each other and ginned.

"How many are you up to?" Ulrich asked.

"You first!" Odd fired a few arrows at the hornets and whistled when they all connected, four monsters disintegrating. "Whoo hoo!"

"I'm glad you're having fun, guys. Keep in mind what we're here to do." Jeremie's voice was amused.

"Are they always like this?" Doctor Hikari asked.

"Pretty much," Ulrich grinned, jumping up and batting a hornet out of the air.

"I've got a read on William, he's on his way. Remember, we have to wait to devirtualize him until Aelita and Rockman are in place," Jeremie cautioned.

"Roger," Odd replied, snapping off a salute between blasts. "Me and Ulrich will keep him occupied, just give us the word."

Then William was on them and there was no time for talking. Theo was with them on the replica, keeping monsters off of their backs while Ulrich and Odd danced around the possessed teen. William ignored Odd, for the most part, focusing instead on Ulrich. The two locked swords repeatedly, the brunette forced to use his greater speed to avoid the majority of damage. Odd got in a few shots here and there but was brushed off.

"Seems like you've got a grudge against me, XANA," Ulrich noted dryly. He'd retreated a few feet and was catching his breath. "Sore after all those beatings I gave you on the 'net?"

The other teen bared his teeth. "You'd have been nothing if not for that pest, Rockman."

"Oh, I don't know." Ulrich leaped over William's head and slashed downwards, expecting the other's sword to come up and block. He wasn't disappointed, launching himself off the blade and landing a few feet away. "I seemed to do a pretty good job on my own. Remember?"

He did remember, Ulrich saw. "I'll raze your world to the ground!"

And that was all for the witty banter, William's renewed assaults forcing him to stay on his toes. He was making an effort not to do much damage, mindful of what was at stake, but it was difficult with William determined to slice him half.

"Aelita and Rockman are in position!" Jeremie reported. "Wait for my signal and then devirtualize Willam!"

Ulrich grunted from the force of a deflected blow. "Easier said than done, Einstein."

Theo cried out, a monster successfully getting under his guard, and Ulrich flinched, glancing at the soccer player. That instant of inattention was enough. Not a second later the brunette was staring at the sword in his chest, knowing that he should be feeling some pain and wondering when he'd stopped feeling pain on the 'net. He was grateful for it, though – he'd rather not have felt being stabbed in the chest.

William sneered. "Nothing witty to say?"

Ulrich could feel his limbs dematerializing, but he still heard Jeremie's signal. He grinned. "Gotcha."

His last sight was of an arrow piercing William's shoulder, Odd crying out in victory.

* * *

William's reintroduction to the real world was a lot less complicated than Ulrich's. The black-haired boy had few memories of his times under XANA's control and so it was a simple matter for him to pick up his life where it left off. Ulrich felt a bit jealous, though by this time he'd gotten back into the rhythms of life offline.

The group was reluctant to let William back into the fight. It had been his arrogance that had led to his capture by XANA and there was no guarantee that it wouldn't happen again. There was no shortage of help, either; Rockman was able to venture to Lyoko to help with a particularly nasty problem should one crop up.

Ulrich, after watching William for a few weeks after the attack, was the one to bring the subject up.

"He's changed," the brunette argued. "You've seen him around campus. He's not as much of a jerk and he thinks before he does things. Why not keep him as a backup member?"

"There's no telling what prolonged exposure to XANA might have done to him," Jeremie pointed out. "The minute he steps foot on Lyoko he might be possessed again. I haven't even been able to analyze his virtual form, it's so bugged up."

"Then delete it," Ulrich said. It was a simple solution, to him; programs had been deleted on the net all the time. It was usually done while feeling like you were putting down a favored pet, but when it came down to that one program and the integrity of the network the choice had been clear. "You can do that, right? Delete William's old Lyoko information, then scan him again. There shouldn't be anything wrong with him physically."

Jeremie had thought long and hard about that, then consulted with Doctor Hikari. It was a few days before the whole group, William included, was once again assembled in the factory.

"I've deleted your profile from the supercomputer," Jeremie told William bluntly. "As far as it's concerned, you didn't exist. Returns to the past will once again affect you, though there's nothing we can do about your knowledge of Lyoko."

William winced. "So why am I here?"

"Given everything that XANA's done to you, you deserve a chance to fight against it," the blonde said. "Not for revenge, but to ensure that it can't do the same thing to one of us. That's why we've decided to call a vote."

The dark-haired boy nodded. "And what did you decide?"

"We need all the help we can get," Yumi told him. "Plus, you've learned from your mistakes, right?"

"No more charging towards the giant jellyfish," William agreed. "Or any other monster. I've learned my lesson."

Ulrich was standing off to the side, leaning against the wall and observing. He'd been the first to cast his vote in favor of inviting William back. He wasn't entirely sure why, though; he had plenty of memories of William's face sneering at him as the black-haired boy had tried his hardest to tear him to pieces. He supposed it was because he felt a sort of kinship with the boy. Not to mention that any help against XANA was welcome.

"Then get downstairs. Let's get you scanned in again." Jeremie cracked his knuckles and turned to the keyboard.

Ulrich pushed off from his position on the wall. "I'll go to Lyoko with him," he volunteered. "Just in case XANA decides to try something." Plus he felt responsible for William; if the teen somehow went bad again he wanted to be there to put him out of his misery.

"Get on down to the scanners, then."

The trip was uneventful, a bit peaceful even. William's Lyoko outfit was a bit different now. It had reverted to its original silver bodysuit, but the giant cleaver was gone. In its place was two short swords sheathed on his waist.

Ulrich privately thought that the dual swords were a manifestation of William's personality changes. Lacking monsters, he invited William to spar. The other still favored heavy attacks, but the second sword allowed for more versatility. William was able to counter some of Ulrich's quicker strikes, countering with the second blade. After devirtualizing him, Ulrich replayed the duel in his head and grinned.

XANA wouldn't know what hit him.

* * *

"Go on, move!" Ulrich yelled, shoving Netto and Meiru ahead of him out a door before whirling to block the laser intended for Netto's head. He glared at the monster XANA had materialized onto the real world just as he was, a digital ghost. Across the room Rockman was guarding another door, 'buster firing rapidly but doing no damage to the Krab that was trying its best to turn his dad into paste.

"Aelita, can you get to the tower and deactivate it?" Jeremie's voice asked. Ulrich ignored it, sprinting towards the Krab and leaping above it. His sword sliced into the eye and with a roar the monster vanished. He used his momentum to bounce off the wall of Doctor Hikari's lab, careening towards the other Krab. It also vanished with a roar, leaving Ulrich and Rockman in a room full of normal humans.

"I'm there, Jeremie. It's deactivated."

"Should I launch a return to the past?" Jeremie asked. Ulrich traded a look with Rockman and Doctor Hikari, the latter of which emerged from his room cautiously.

"It's up to you, Hikari-hakase," Ulrich informed him. "Return to the past or not?"

"Meiru is very good at keeping secrets," the older man said dryly, dusting off his white lab coat. "I think we'll be okay for now. Rockman, go back to the Lyoko Replica and wait for me to enter the codes."

"Yes, Papa." Rockman stowed his 'buster. "Jeremie? Can you return me to the Replica?"

There was no answer. "Jeremie?" Ulrich asked cautiously.

Still nothing. The two digitized beings traded looks with each other before Rockman sighed. "There's only one other way to get back."

"I know." Ulrich spun his saber around so it pointed at the Navi. "I'll have to wait I guess."

Netto winced as Rockman impaled himself on the blade and vanished. Ulrich couldn't blame him for it. Having to essentially kill one of his friends was not one of his favorite moments; the knowledge that they were safe on Lyoko or Earth didn't do anything to assuage his guilt. "He's not dead, right?"

"He'll be disoriented but fine," Ulrich assured him. "He'll reappear on the Replica."

"Um, Netto, what's going on?" Meiru asked a bit timidly. "Why is Ulrich dressed as that Navi with the same name?"

"It's a long story," the Japanese brunette said awkwardly. They went to a corner and Netto started speaking quickly while Ulrich turned his attention to Doctor Hikari.

"You're about to change the Replica's security codes now, right?" he asked.

"Yes. Once done, XANA won't be able to send any more monsters. I've given Aelita a copy of what the new security passcodes are so you will still be able to visit at your leisure." Doctor Hikari was typing furiously. "Once you all return to France Jeremie says that he's ready to do the same for Lyoko. It will keep XANA from activating the towers there, too, and you all will be one step closer to deleting him."

"And we'll be able to go to school in peace," Ulrich agreed. "Way to go, Hikari-hakase!"

"Ulrich, can you hear me?" Odd's voice asked. "Jeremie's in trouble, XANA managed to activate a tower back here on Lyoko. I don't know how to get you back, either. I don't know what to do!"

"Protect Jeremie! I'll see if I can't off myself here somehow to get back," Ulrich snapped, looking around for likely causes of devirtualization. He spotted an electrical cable that had been ripped out by one of the pointed claws of a Krab. "This is going to hurt," he winced.

A few minutes later he awoke inside the Skid. It had moved while he'd been unconscious, the submarine now traversing the Digital Sea when the last he'd seen it, it had been tethered to a tower on the Forest Replica.

"That wasn't my idea of a fun time," he groaned, rubbing his sore head. The rest of him didn't ache, exactly, but he felt just a bit more tingly than usual.

"We're almost back to Lyoko. Get ready to fight." Aelita's voice was grim over the comm and Ulrich nodded, hand gripping his sword.

* * *

With both Lyoko and the Forest Replica cut off from XANA's control, the fight was over almost before Ulrich realized it. Jeremie and Doctor Hikari worked together on a modified version of the former's ill-fated Marabounta program, and with a little help from Franz Hopper the fight was suddenly over. All of the rest of the Replicas all over the world, save the one Doctor Hikari had made his own, were destroyed along with XANA.

That left only a few pieces of unfinished business, as far as Ulrich was concerned.

He watched the two scanners open, two identical brunettes falling out with a shared groan. Odd and Yumi were there to catch them before they totally faceplanted, supporting them into the elevator that linked the scanner room, control room, and upper level of the abandoned factory.

They recovered in time for the door to open, revealing the rest of their little group. Jeremie was at his console as usual, fingers poised above the keys and face split into a grin. Aelita was standing behind him, hands clasped behind her back, while next to her Theo and William each shared a small grin.

"Welcome to France, Netto, Rockman," Jeremie greeted them. "How was the trip?"

The green-eyed brunette held up his finger. "Saito," he corrected with a grin. "Since I've been living on Earth I've been going by my human name. Plus it keeps people from guessing that I'm Rockman."

"It was fun until that last part," Netto groaned, rubbing his stomach. "I still prefer being on the operator side of things."

"I have permission from my parents for two Japanese pen pals to stay over at our house," Yumi grinned. "And we have permission from the principal of our school to let you attend classes for a week or so. Ready to immerse yourself in French?"

Netto grinned. "Papa installed a translation program into me just before we left. There shouldn't be any problems! Although it's weird, having something just installed." He made a face. "I don't think I'm ever getting anything else installed again."

"It's easier than learning it, right, Netto-kun?" Saito teased.

Netto huffed, causing everyone in the room to laugh.

As they exited the factory, the source of so much heartache and pain and happy memories, Ulrich wondered just if he'd get a good night's sleep for once.


End file.
